Why no country wants Rohingya, why it’s so difficult to deport them: 

Why no country wants Rohingya, why it’s so difficult to deport them: 

Context:

• The worsening Rohingya crisis in Myanmar

Issues:

• After a terrorist attack by the Rohingya radical groups, in which several members of Myanmar security forces lost their lives, Myanmar has resorted to military operations against the Rohingya in its Rakhine state
• There has been a huge influx of refugees in to Bangladesh due to worsening of the crisis
• Bangladesh put pressure on India to recognize the crisis as a refugee crisis not merely a security issue
• Stance of the Indian government to deport the refugees. The difficulties in deporting them.

Who are the Rohingya? What is their relationship with the Myanmar state?

• The Rohingya are the world’s biggest stateless ethnic group. There are about a million of them, most of whom live in northern Rakhine.
• They are Muslim by religion.
• Myanmar’s government does not recognise them as citizens, which results in their legalised persecution.
• There are numerous restrictions on them, including on their movement, access to the economy, education, health and other rights, which keep them in poverty and squalor

India’s views

• PM Modi, while in Myanmar, recognized only the security dimension of the Rohingya crisis and ignored the issue of human displacement and refugee crisis.
•  Under pressure from Bangladesh, the Indian government expressed concern on the worsening refugee crisis and called for restraint by the Myanmar military
•  MoS Home Kiren Rijuju has indicated that the 40,000 Rohingya (the UNHCR-registered number is 16,500) in India are a generalised threat, feeding into Hindu-Muslim fault lines.
•  India’s national security fears are based on intelligence reports linking the radical Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
•  Indian establishments have been concerned at the “disproportionate response” by the security forces since last year, for their potential to radicalise the Rohingya.

Myanmar’s view on citizenship of the Rohingya

• Under Myanmar’s discriminatory 1982 citizenship law, only those who trace their residence in the country to before 1823, or those belonging to the majority Burman, or Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin, Mon, Rakhine and Shan ethnic groups, qualify for full citizenship.
• Other categories of citizenship are technically open to Rohingya, but in practical terms, make their acceptance impossible.

Why are the Rohingya excluded?

• The Rohingya trace their origins in Rakhine to the 15th century or earlier.
• But the official name for them today is “Bengali”.
• The Myanmar authorities claim that they came to Rakhine as part of the British East India Company’s expansion into Burma after it defeated the Burmese king in 1826.
•  The Burman, Chinese, Malay and Thai Muslims have a different, better relationship with the Myanmar state.
• The Rohingya are also racially different.

The Rohingya’s claim to citizenship?

• According to Rohingya activists, there are enough references after 1948 to point to their political acceptance as citizens.
• Burma’s first President U Nu is believed to have said in a public speech in 1954 that “the people living in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships [Rohingya dominated areas in Rakhine state] are Rohingya, ethnics of Burma”.
• From May 1961 to October 1965, the Burma Broadcasting Service in Yangon broadcast a Rohingya language programme three times a week.
• The Rangoon University Rohingya Students Association was among the many ethnic student associations that functioned from 1959 to 1961.
• Even after the military takeover in 1962, the junta continued to use the Rohingya expediently.

When did the crisis accelerate in the recent times?

• In 2012, there were Rohingya-Buddhist clashes, triggered by the rape and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist woman, allegedly by two Rohingya men.
• Entire Rohingya villages were burnt.
• Thousands fled to Bangladesh and to camps set up under UN supervision in Rakhine.
• These are the camps where the radical Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is said to have taken shape

India’s options and difficulty in deporting the Rohingya

• India believes “quiet diplomacy” is its only option, but is worried it will be increasingly drawn into the situation.
• The crisis does not seem to be resolved soon and it is unlikely that Myanmar will accept the Rohingya as citizens.
• Therefore, the Home Ministry’s plan to “deport” the 40,000 Rohingya in India may be premature.
• There is nowhere yet to deport them. They belong to no country, and no country wants them.