Rejected by the country they were born in and shunned by the neighbouring states, the Rohingya are among the the most vulnerable amongst forcibly displaced groups.

Thousands of Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar, especially after the August 25 violence in Western Myanmar. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which places them among the “the most vulnerable groups of the forcibly displaced” has said a total of 87,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh as of Monday. Are they really citizens of Myanmar? Why are they leaving now? Here is a lowdown on the issue.

Who are Rohingya?

Rohingya are an ethnic group, largely comprising Muslims, who predominantly live in the Western Myanmar province of Rakhine. They speak a dialect of Bengali, as opposed to the commonly spoken Burmese language.

Though they have been living in the South East Asian country for generations, Myanmar considers them as persons who migrated to their land during the Colonial rule. So, it has not granted Rohingyas full citizenship. According the 1982 Burmese citizenship law, a Rohingya (or any ethnic minority) is eligible for citizenship only if he/she provides proof that his/her ancestors have lived in the country prior to 1823. Else, they are classified as “resident foreigners” or as “associate citizens” (even if one of the parent is a Myanmar citizen).

Since they are not citizens, they are not entitled to be part of civil service. Their movements are also restricted within the Rakhine state.

What happened in 2012?

Myanmar state, which was ruled by the military junta until 2011, has been accused of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine by the United Nations. It deported thousands of Rohingya to Bangladesh in the seventies and the citizenship law was also enacted by the junta. Things changed little for the Rohingya even after the political reforms in 2011 that eventually led to the first general elections in 2015, as the democratically-elected government-headed by President Htin Kyaw has been unwilling to grant citizenship.

Sectarian violence between Rohingyas and Rakhine’s Buddhist natives began flaring up in June 2012, following the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman in a Rohingya-dominated locality. The riots, which were triggered as a result, went on for almost a month with causalities on both the sides.

A woman with her children at a refugee camp in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Ethnic clashes between Buddhists and Rohingyas broke out in Rakhine State in June 2012, resulting in a number of deaths (official records peg the toll at 78) and displacing over 1,00,000 people. According to Human Rights Watch, the Rohingya population in Myanmar is between 8,00,000 and 1,000,000. The Rohingyas have however been subjected to continued discrimination in Myanmar. The 1982 Citizenship Act omitted them from the list of ethnic groups, and the national census in 1983 did not count them either. The condition of Rohingya Muslims living in temporary camps in Myanmar is pathetic. Four months after the violence, 75,000 people continue to live in these camps, Refugee International said. A refugee carries a child in Baw Du Pha refugee camp in Sittwe, Rakhine State. According to Refugee International, though these camps receive humanitarian aid from the United Nations and Medicines Sans Frontiers, sanitary and health conditions are far from satisfactory. The Refugee International found that out of 12 Rohingya neighbourhoods previously in Sittwe, only one remained. Its estimated 8,000 residents have been barricaded into the neighbourhood. “If they leave, they face attack or arrest,” Sarnata Reynolds, programme manager for statelessness at Refugee International was quoted as saying by the AP. Recently a team from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, USA, visited strife-torn Sittwe and Mongdu areas and recommended “immediate humanitarian assistance” and “access to international aid” for the affected people. Rohingya Muslims, who fled from Myanmar, seen at a temporary shelter at a Border Guards of Bangladesh camp. With the Myanmar government refusing to recognise Rohingyas as its citizens, thousands of them had to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims are brought by Bangladeshi border guards to a boat jetty at Shahporir Dwip in Taknaf. While Bangladesh has, over the years, opened its borders to fleeing Rohingyas, this year they rejected asylum seekers, even pushing them back by land or sea. In this June 13, 2012 photo, a Rohingya man cries as he pleads from a boat after he and others were intercepted by Bangladeshi border authorities in Taknaf, Bangladesh. The United Nations report on sectarian violence in Myanmar says that border guards in Bangladesh “sent refugees back in barely sea-worthy wooden boats during rough monsoon rains”. A protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta in July 2012, denouncing the violence in Myanmar. A little girl sits at an unauthorized camp that houses Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. The Myanmar government continues to turn a blind eye towards thousands of Rohingyas living in pathetic conditions, faced with human rights violations and with no country to call their own. Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under criticism for failing to voice the concerns of Rohingyas.

Another round of riots broke out in October, due to which the government moved around a million Rohingyas to refugee camps. Thousands of Rohingyas fled their homes and sought refugee in neighbouring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation. Some of them sought asylum in South East Asian nations of Thailand, The Phillipines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

This ethnic conflict flared up as religious violence spreading to the other provinces of Myanmar. It was finally contained in 2013 after military intervention.

What happened on August 25 this year?

Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state on August 25. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the attacks. In the counter attacks launched by Army at least 59 of the insurgents and 12 security personnel were killed.

The ARSA is an armed guerilla outfit, which is active since 2016, claiming to fight for a “ democratic Muslim state for the Rohingya.” The group has been targeting Myanmar armed forces. Bangladesh and India have also claimed ARSA is creating trouble in their soil too.

The “clearance operations” to root out ARSA launched by the Myanmar military has once again affected the lives of Rohingya, many of whom have been living in relief camps since 2012. Reports of villages being torched, civilian deaths, and Rohingya youths being picked up for interrogation have followed the militant attack.

Why is Bangladesh having a problem with the Rohingya?

An estimated 87,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since late 2016. The influx has been increasing since August 25. About five lakh Rohingyas have already taken shelter in Bangladesh over the last two decades and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is clearly unwilling to take in more. She has even urged the United States to to put pressure on Myanmar to stop the exodus of Rohingyas. “We have given shelter to a huge number of Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds and it’s a big problem for us,” she had said. The country has opened its border for Rohingyas upon UNHCR’s request and continues to shelter Rohingya in over-crowded refugee camps at Cox Bazar.

What about Rohingya in India?

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs there are approximately 40,000 Rohingyas living in India. They have reportedly reached India from Bangladesh through the land route over the years. MoS Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, recently informed the parliament that all the Rohingyas in India were “illegal immigrants” and they will be deported soon, a decision that has surprised many given the record of India accepting refugees.

Without overtly mentioning Rohingya, the Home Ministry in an advisory to states said “infiltration from Rakhine State of Myanmar into Indian territory…besides being burden on the limited resources of the country also aggravates the security challenges posed to the country.”

A case is pending in Supreme Court with the petitioner asking the Union government to stop with its deportation plans.