Rohingya Refugee Crisis

What’s going on?

‘Human ping pong’ is one of the most popular terms being batted around over the current Rohingya refugee crisis, but what exactly is going on and who are these people?

Fleeing apartheid like circumstances in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, the Rohingya people are a Muslim ethnic minority originating from both Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Right now thousands of Rohingya refugees are sitting in overcrowded and rickety boats in the Andaman Sea off the shore of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, where they hope to be resettled under humanitarian grounds.

They’re quickly running out of food and water, and hundreds have already drowned after a number of these unstable boats capsized.

After being rejected for a safe arrival into Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia the United Nations is urging regional governments to protect the thousands of people stranded at sea.

However, with so many needing resettlement no single country is willing to take them in, and any operation to resettle the Rohingyas will mean a huge effort from multiple countries.

A meeting of representatives of 17 countries was held in Bangkok on Friday in an attempt to reach a solution for the stateless people but the meeting has been considered a failure.

The worlds most persecuted people

The UN has reported a staggering estimation of 25,000 people who have fled Rakhine by boat between January and March this year.

For most the decision is made not through desire, but through necessity.

“People know well about the dangers at sea, but they also know that the situation on land is worse than on the boats,” a Rohingya elder explained to The Economist why thousands of Rohingya people are fleeing on boats that most wouldn’t dream of stepping foot on.

A Myanmar citizen ship law passes in 1982 denied citizenship to the 1.1 million Rohingya people living locally, despite some having lived there for generations.

For the Rohingya people this stripped them of their nationality and subsequently restricted their freedom of movement and access to basic services such as education and healthcare.

There have also been reports of authorities removing household registration cards, the only form of identification they have, and along with them the chance of obtaining citizenship anywhere.

These conditions may be tolerable for the Rohingya people if the discrimination didn’t extend to the risk of violent attacks and persecution by the anti-Muslim Rakhines, the local Buddhist ethnic people and even central government agents.

In fact, one of the few things the Rakhines and the local ethnic Buddhist group agree on is a joint hatred for the Rohingya people who they call “Bengalis”.

The situation came to a climax in 2012 after two incidents of ethnic cleansing by Rakhine nationalists forced 140,000 Rohingya people into refugee camps which they have not been allowed to leave since.

Since 2012, Rohingyan camps and villages have been forced into isolation, cutting them off totally from any major towns and tall wire fences are now being built to add to the segregation.

The isolation is causing problems in terms of access to food, work, education and healthcare, making daily living difficult.

What global politicians have said

A meeting of 17 countries in Bangkok on Friday failed to produce any real solutions to the thousands of migrants still sitting off the shore of Thailand in increasingly unstable situations.

The Meeting on the Rohingya Crisis – also called the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean to satisfy Myanmar officials who said they would not attend if the word Rohingya was used – attempted to workshop solutions to the ongoing migration crisis.

Malaysia and Indonesia have put their hands up to allow some of the Rohingya migrants to come ashore, but only for one year.

They have both said they will build temporary shelters to house the migrants.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pointed fingers at Myanmar, calling for greater international pressure for Myanmar to stop the flow of refugees at the source.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has already stated that believes it is a problem that should be dealt with by regional countries.

“The countries that will have to take the bulk of the responsibility are obviously the countries which are closest to the problem,’’ Mr Abbott said.

“Now, in the end, the culprit is Myanmar because it is Myanmar where there is an issue.”

When asked if Australia would be among countries receiving a share in the migrants in need of resettlement he replied: “nope, nope, nope.”