The
nation that they call as their own, do not accept them as citizens. Their
houses are burnt, and belongings are looted. Being killed, raped, shot and
persecuted, they are forced to migrate to a neighboring country, which already
being overly populated, cannot afford to ensure shelter for them. However, tons
of people are fleeing from their own land, with the hope that they will be
capable to escape death for the time being. These terrible yet practical
stories are from the lives of Rohingya people of Myanmar, who are considered to
be the most oppressed and persecuted ethnic community in the world at present.
Rohingyas
are one of the small ethnic groups of Muslims, who live in the Rakhain state of
Myanmar. Rohingyas have been living there for a long time, and interstingly
also declare themselves as “Arab descendants”. However, the government of
Myanmar does not consider them as their citizens, and thus, do not provide them
with any basic citizen rights. Moreover, The government of Myanmar claims that
the Rohingya people are actually the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, with
which Bangladeshi Governement strictly disagree.
Rejecting
the Rohingyas as citizens, the government of Myanmar follows a strict, and a
harsh policy to clear them out from the country, which they were implementing
for decades. Nevertheless, the most recent clearance operation of Rohingyas
from Myanmar has reached to the peak in brutality. On October 9, 2016, Police
of Myanmar announced that Rohingya “militants” killed nine security officers, although
it has not been established with evidence. Right after the announcement,
Rohingya community started facing brutal persecution by the armed forces of the
state, which was later set as “legitimate genocide” in scores of different
international media. Agreeing to a
later story in Time magazine, more than 100 people have been killed, hundreds
have been held up by the military, more than 150,000 aids-reliant people have
been gone away without food and medical attention, lots of women claim to have
been sexually assaulted in the Rakhain state of Myanmar. Alarmingly, the
numbers are expected to be more as the days are going by.
Despite having constant pressure from the world
community, the government of Myanmar continues forcing the Rohingya people to
leave the state with the supporter of
the worst possible ways of
shooting down, cutting, and plundering. Journalists and reporters are
banned in the affected areas, and surprisingly, there is a claim from the
government that, being fundamentalists and extremists, the Rohingyas are actually
burning their own houses during internal clashes.
Unfortunately, Rohingyas do not get any kind of
support from the citizens of Myanmar, as most of them also deny the citizenship
of Rohingya community. As a result, they are fleeing to Bangladesh, the
neighboring country, and are seeking shelter as refugees. Every day, hundreds
of Rohingyas are reported to cross the border of Bangladesh include wounded,
pregnant women, and children. Lots of them are forced to go back to Myanmar,
because, being a densely populated country, it is very difficult for Bangladesh
to provide shelter for the huge number of refugees coming into the country
every single day. The government of Bangladesh thinks that opening the borders
for the Rohingya refugees might encourage the Myanmar government to force more
and more Rohingyas to leave the country.
In spite of sending back a huge number of
Rohingyas to their own country, Bangladesh already provided temporary shelter
for huge numbers of Rohingyas in different border areas with the technical
support from UNHCR. Presently, there are about 300000 people living in
different camps in CoxsBazar, Bangladesh. In the camps, they are leading
devastating lives- lack of proper medical care and education.
Recently, different international human rights
organizations have created pressure on the Myanmar government to take them back
and provide them citizenship, but the situation does not seem to get changed at
all. Thousands of people are living with uncertainty, extreme fear, and
devastating lives, with no hope that their own country will ever accept them.
Author: Tahira Tazreen
Sources:
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