Rohingya Rights

The Issue In Depth

Everything you need to know

Who are the Rohingya?

The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority. Though they have lived in Myanmar for generations, the Myanmar government insists that all Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In Myanmar, a system of institutionalised discrimination and segregation severely restricts the human rights of Rohingya people, and amounts to an apartheid state. The Myanmar government has prosecuted and systematically discriminated against them for decades, denying them citizenship, education, and basic human rights.

Ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity

In August 2017 the Myanmar military responded to attacks by a Rohingya armed group by unleashing a wave of violence against ordinary men, women and children.

Thousands of Rohingya people have died or lost their homes in a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing. A UN report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Mynamar released in August 2018 stated that military leaders in the country must face charges of genocide.

“Late last year I travelled to Cox’s Bazar to see firsthand the situation facing nearly one million Rohingya refugees and to take their stories to decision-makers in Australia on their behalf”

says Craig Foster AM, ​​Former Socceroo and Amnesty International Australia Ambassador.

Background

Due to the violent actions of the Myanmar military, more than one million Rohingya refugees were forced to evacuate to Bangladesh. They currently reside in Cox’s Bazar, the largest refugee camp in the world. 

The Rohingya remain stateless, and returning to their homes is not safe under the military rule in Myanmar. Even though they are forced to remain in Bangladesh for the foreseeable future, the conditions in the camp are inhumane, with international aid reducing to levels that don’t provide for essential needs. 

The vast majority of Rohingya in Bangladesh are not formally recognised by Bangladesh as refugees, and are subjected to live in temporary shelters, unable to lawfully work, and have limited access to education.

Conditions

The camps stretch across 27 square kilometres, made up of small, makeshift bamboo and tarpaulin shelters that leak in the rain and keep heat inside when it’s hot. Even though the area is well known for its cyclonic events, the Rohingya are denied access to proper construction materials. There are approximately 200,000 families with over 500,000 children living in the camps, many not having any experience of life in their homeland. 

Roads aren’t paved but constructed with bricks so they can be easily removed once the Rohingya ‘leave’. Fencing surrounds the camp, lined with barbed wire to trap and keep the Rohingya people from leaving. Desperate conditions have led to the rise of criminal groups within the camps which pose a threat to safety. 

Access to food and healthcare 

A lack of resources has led to terrible living conditions which include malnutrition, disease and the full implications of human desperation. Following outbreaks of cholera and other diseases, the current outbreak of scabies is the largest the world has ever seen with over half a million people impacted.

Access to food is scarce, and the Rohingya are only given a budget of $10USD per person for the bare essentials such as rice and grain, having to forgo meat and other foods.