Myanmar: The Rohingya: The exodus isn’t over

News Update

This report was originally published on The New Humanitarian. Follow the link for full story. On 9 October 2016, attacks on guard posts along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh set off an allegedly genocidal military crackdown that led more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee for their lives into Bangladesh over the next year. They joined some 300,000 victims of earlier campaigns packed into already crowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The exodus brought some belated international attention to Myanmar’s long-persecuted Muslim minority, but their troubles had been building relatively unnoticed for decades. In the years since the exodus, the plight of the fewer than 500,000 Rohingya who remain in Myanmar has only become more dire, thanks largely to the February 2021 military coup and an escalating civil war involving several armed ethnic resistance groups. Today, the Rohingya, like millions of other civilians in Myanmar, are subjected to deadly air raids, forced conscription, and alleged aid interference by the military junta. But the ill treatment of the Muslim minority extends further. Since late 2023, the Arakan Army, an armed opposition group based in Rakhine State, has also been accused of arson attacks, forced disappearances, and the targeted killing of Rohingya civilians. At the same time, Bangladesh, criticised for arbitrarily opening and closing its borders as Rohingya try to flee Myanmar – and for the increasing violence and generally poor conditions in its refugee camps – is dealing with its own political uncertainty after deadly protests forced out longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. The refugee crisis, meanwhile, has shifted from a short-term response to a protracted emergency. Conditions in the camps have worsened, and In 2021, Rohingya faced massive fires and severe monsoon floods. When the Arakan Army took majority control of Rakhine in late 2023, it only added to the troubles for the Rohingya, who are now allegedly subject to forced conscription, disappearances and widespread displacement by the Arakan Army. The AA’s leadership have also made controversial statements alluding to the Muslim minority as Bengali migrants. The junta has been no better. Government restrictions on refugees and aid groups have grown, along with grievances among local communities on the margins of a massive aid operation. But it’s important to note that the Rohingya have been victims of decades of restrictive policies and persecution in Myanmar. In 1982, the government passed a citizenship law that effectively stripped the Rohingya of all rights to legal citizenship. This only exacerbated the claim that Rohingya Muslims are not indigenous to the nation, and are instead migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Since then, the situation for the Rohingya people hasn’t improved under either military rule or when a short-lived civilian government was in power. The February 2021 military coup has made the prospects of a safe return even more uncertain. The coup triggered a nationwide civil disobedience movement, re-ignited conflicts in Myanmar’s border regions, and worsened existing humanitarian crises. Rights groups say the military committed new abuses against Myanmar’s population. Since 2023, however, a series of armed ethnic resistance groups have also come under criticism for their alleged rights abuses as they challenge the junta’s dominance. Most notably, the Arakan Army, the armed group based in Rakhine state, have allegedly targeted and abused the Rohingya.