Why did Rohingya Flee to Bangladesh?

 

The violent conflict between the Buddhist Majority and the Rohingya Muslims minority is visible due to religious differences in Western Myanmar.The simmering tension between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Western Myanmar escalated in 2012 to a violent conflict. The Rohingya communities lost their social status caused bythe restriction of freedom of movement in their state. They are scared for their security because of physical torture by the Buddhist majority ethnic group under the leadership of the present government in Myanmar.  The Rohingya communities are not recognized citizens by their government. Since then, these communities displaced from their homelandto Bangladesh.

Since the late 1970s, the Rohingya communities have been oppressed in Myanmar because of religious differences with the dominant Buddhist ethnic groups. These decades of oppression have caused the Rohingya to lose social status and fear insecurity in their homeland. Amnesty International explains that the Muslim ethnic Rohingya minorities have been living for many years in the Rakhine States in Western Myanmar. The first Rohingya Muslims who settled in this region came from Arab mariners in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Currently, more than 1.2 million ethnic minority Muslims have been living on the border of Bangladesh.These minorities are not included among the 135 ethnic groups bythe Myanmargovernment. Myanmar government claimed that the Rohingya minority were migrants from South India during the British Colonial Days. Nowadays, alarge number of these communities arevictimized due to their religious beliefs. This victimization demonstrated extreme violationsofhuman rights in their homeland.

Freedom of movement is an individual right for all communities. The Rohingya communities in Myanmar have suffered an almost complete loss of social status due torestricted movement. These minority peoples require food, shopping, employment, land cultivation, and communication with their relatives for a sustainable livelihood. Their employment is essential during non-cultivating seasons,especially when there is not enough work in their village. Amnesty International reports the Rohingya must apply to their Rakhine state for permission to leave their village. In this way, their freedom isconsiderably more limited than that of other residents of the Rakhine state. This restriction has affected their food supply because they are unable to work on their land.

The ethnic Rohingya minorities are also designated as refugees in their society by the State government. As human beings inMyanmar, their social status isfar awaydue to being recognized as refugees. As a result, the Rohingya people have been a refugee in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand. In this way, these minority peoples have been sufferingthe lack of human rights in the bordering countries. For instance, The Rohingya's children have no access to education. Additionally, these people are not permitted to receive health care. Recently, about1.2 million Rohingyas aremigrated to Bangladesh because of massive human rights violations in the Rakhine state by the Burmese security forces.

Marriage is another individual right for all human beingsrecognized throughout most of the world.The Rohingya people are deprived of a relationship with each other by marriage in their society. These communities have to be endorsed by the government before marriage. The Rohingya people are not allowed to bear more than two children after they got permission to marry. Besides, Rohingya women areforced into prostitution by the local Burmese security forces. These minority women are not able to marry in their society due to illegal pregnancies. They forceto get back-alley abortions under unsanitary conditions. In this way, they have lost the opportunity to marry in theirsociety.

In addition to the loss of social status, the Rohingya were suffered torture at the hands of Buddhists. Due to the tortured by these communities, the Rohingya communities were frightened. These populationsfeared for their security in theirown homes. Many of these communities were torture in their home countries under existing forms of government. These communities were not safe in their home country.

Not only have they been tortured, but many of these minority peoples killed by anti-Rohingya violence. These communities have tried to explore a nonviolent zone for their safety. Due to fear for their security, many Rohingya communities have illicitly crossed their Arakan state to Bangladesh. This violence has spread to the wider regions. Many of the Buddhist majority has been working in different countries.In these circumstances, the Rohingya communities have been wounded in other countries bythe Buddhists.

Every person has the right to live in their homeland,but the Rohingya people were insecure in their country All Rohingya people were not enlisted as citizensby their government in Myanmar. Still, citizenship rules are confusing in Myanmar for these communities,even though they are born in Myanmar.Except for Rohingya people who migrated to different countries, they are becoming citizens whether or not they are born in those countries. The only exceptions of Rohingya'spopulation in Myanmar who are not legalattainmentof citizenship in their states. Due to a lack of full citizenship and personal security, these minority peoples migrated from their homeland. In these circumstances, these communities have no identity anywhere in the world. However, the vast majority of Rohingya minoritiesfail to qualify for getting citizenship. Among them are those who applied for citizenship under the 1948 act, required for the grant of associate citizenship, and most of them were unawareof associate citizenship. Amnesty International is concerned about the Burma citizenship law of 1982. This law is implemented effectively as a denial of the right to nationality for members of the Rohingya population. So, these laws and practices represent the nullifying of Rohingya's recognition and this discrimination implemenetd against a particular ethnic group, the Rohingya.

Due to loss of physical safety and citizenship, the Rohingya people journeyedbyunsafe boats for survivalto Bangladesh. Migration is a very precarious issue for these communities. They had no sea boats and legal authorization to the entrance inBangladesh. Their life becomes dreadful; they had no land under their feet. Most of the Rohingyahave made treacherousjourneys by boat to Bangladesh. The irregular sea boat migration was a sensitive issue and driven to a sense of tragedy and loss. Due toirregular sea migration, thousandsof Rohingyas also  missed in the sea.

In conclusion,  the Rohingya communities have been oppressed due to the massive human rights violations by the Myanmar government and the Buddhist majority people in their state. Consequently, many of the Rohingya minority communities have migrated to Bangladesh for their survival. Human Rights Organizations, The United Nations, and world political leaders are already concerned about the massive human rights violations in Myanmar. Theyhave already visited Myanmar to make a policy for the securityof this nation. Still conflict is noticeable. In my opinion, the Myanmar government should make a policy with the help of the United Nations, the Human Rights Organization, and the neighboring countries that will play a vital role inthe survival of these communities.


Dr Mohammad Zahangeer Alam is a Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU)