Rohingya Refugees

Rohingya refugees issue was discussed at the 14th Asean Summit just completed in Hua Hin, Thailand. These regional leaders decided to treat them as just one of the migrant groups in the Indian Ocean.

Wikipedia described Rohingya as “The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group of the Northern Rakhine State of Western Burma (nowadays called Myanmar). The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated in five townships namely Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Akyab, Kyaunktaw and Rathidaung in the northern Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan).”

There were many Rohingya refugees running away form their country seeking refuge in other countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. They are coming by boats to the Asean countries but they are often rejected as refugees.

Refugees are considered asylum seekers running away from their country due to war or violence in their home country. The receiving country must provide refugees with proper protection and treatment as determine in the international law. However, by treating the Rohingya as migrant group, the receiving countries have the right to reject them and sent them back to their home country.

There were a few cases where the Thai Navy towing the boats loaded with Rohingya back to the open sea resulting some of the boats capsized and many people drown.

Reading the news about Rohingya refugees make me think of the Vietnam refugees in Malaysia many years ago. I was still very young at that time. I can still recall there were many boat people coming from Vietnam. There came because of war in Vietnam and these people are considered as refugees. There was a very big refugee camp in Sungai Besi (near the current Bukit Jalil stadium site with thousands of Vietnam refugees. Every time when my father drove me pass the camp I will look inside the camp curiously. I saw many adults and children seating in the wooden long house waiting for time to pass. They were waiting for a chance to be adopted by another country. Some lucky ones were sent to countries like Canada, USA and other western countries to start a new life.

Many years later when I was studying in the USA, I met a Vietnamese student. She told me she had been to Malaysia. I asked her why she was there and she told me that she was one of the refugees in the Sungai Besi camp. I was surprised that many of the Vietnam refugees in USA are doing very well. Like most Asian people, they are very hard working and willing to learn. After a few years, they managed to live comfortably in their adopted country. But most important of all, they were given a second chance.

Why don’t we give the Rohingya refugees a chance? They ran away from their country without knowing what is ahead of them. Many of them will die along the way. But why do they take the risk if they are not facing great violence and lift threatening situation at home?

There was report as stated in Wikipedia that “widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. Rohingyas were forced to work without pay by the Myanmar army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labour of Rohingya civilians by the security forces.”

Asean countries together with international organizations should treat the Rohingya as refugees and operate refugee camps to help them and at the same time put pressure on Myanmar government to treat their minorities within the context of human rights.