Introduction

Discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government since the late 1970s have compelled hundreds of thousands of
Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh,
while others have taken to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Beginning in 2017, renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson, triggered an exodus of Rohingya amid
charges of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s security forces. Those forces claim they are carrying out a campaign to
reinstate stability in the western region of Myanmar, but international pressure on the country’s elected leaders to rein
in violence continues to rise.

Who are the Rohingya?

The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam. There are an
estimated 3.5 million Rohingya dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017, the majority of the estimated one million
Rohingya in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State, where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. They differ
from Myanmar’s dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously.

The Rohingya trace their origins in the region to the fifteenth century, when thousands of Muslims came to the
former Arakan Kingdom. Many others arrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Rakhine was
governed by colonial rule as part of British India. Since independence in 1948, successive governments in Burma, renamed
Myanmar in 1989, have refuted the Rohingya’s historical claims and denied the group recognition as one of the
country’s 135 official ethnic groups. The Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many
trace their roots in Myanmar back centuries.
Neither the central government nor Rakhine’s dominant ethnic Buddhist group, known as the Rakhine, recognize
the label “Rohingya,” a self-identifying term that surfaced in the 1950s, which experts say provides the group with a
collective political identity. Though the etymological root of the word is disputed, the most widely accepted theory is
that Rohang derives from the word “Arakan” in the Rohingya dialect and ga or gya means “from.” By identifying as
Rohingya, the ethnic Muslim group asserts its ties to land that was once under the control of the Arakan Kingdom,
according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based advocacy group.

What is the legal status of the Rohingya?

The government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship, and as a result most of the group’s members have no
legal documentation, effectively making them stateless. Myanmar’s 1948 citizenship law was already exclusionary, and
the military junta, which seized power in 1962, introduced another law twenty years later that stripped the Rohingya of
access to full citizenship. Until recently, the Rohingya had been able to register as temporary residents with identification
cards, known as white cards, which the junta began issuing to many Muslims, both Rohingya and non-Rohingya, in the
1990s. The white cards conferred limited rights but were not recognized as proof of citizenship. Still, Lewa says that they
did provide some recognition of temporary stay for the Rohingya in Myanmar.

In 2014 the government held a UN-backed national census, its first in thirty years. The Muslim minority group was
initially permitted to identify as Rohingya, but after Buddhist nationalists threatened to boycott the census, the
government decided Rohingya could only register if they identified as Bengali instead.

Similarly, under pressure from Buddhist nationalists protesting the Rohingya’s right to vote in a 2015
constitutional referendum, then President Thein Sein canceled the temporary identity cards in February 2015, effectively
revoking their newly gained right to vote. (White card holders were allowed to vote in Myanmar’s 2008 constitutional
referendum and 2010 general elections.) In the 2015 elections, which were widely touted by international monitors as
free and fair, no parliamentary candidate was of the Muslim faith. “Country-wide anti-Muslim sentiment makes it
politically difficult for the government to take steps seen as supportive of Muslim rights,” writes the International Crisis
Group.
Muslim minorities continue to “consolidate under one Rohingya identity,” says Lewa, despite documentation by
rights groups and researchers of systematic disenfranchisement, violence, and instances of anti-Muslim campaigns
Why are the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar?
Rakhine State is Myanmar’s least developed state, with a poverty rate of 78 percent.

The Myanmar government has effectively institutionalized discrimination against the ethnic group
through restrictions on marriage, family planning, employment, education, religious choice, and freedom of movement.
For example, Rohingya couples in the northern towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung are only allowed to have two
children [PDF]. Rohingya must also seek permission to marry, which may require them to bribe authorities and provide
photographs of the bride without a headscarf and the groom with a clean-shaven face, practices that conflict with Muslim
customs. To move to a new home or travel outside their townships, Rohingya must gain government approval.
Moreover, Rakhine State is Myanmar’s least developed state, with a poverty rate of 78 percent, compared to the 37.5
percent national average, according to World Bank estimates. Widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and a lack of
employment opportunities in Rakhine have exacerbated the cleavage between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya. This
tension is deepened by religious differences that have at times erupted into conflict.
What is being done by the international community?
The need for aid is overwhelming. With the monsoon season approaching, work has begun to re-locate some
refugees from the camps most at risk of flooding or landslides and in other sites, work has been taking place to improve
drainage channels and strengthen shelters.
 About 70% of the one million refugees are now receiving food aid, according to the Inter Sector Coordination
Group report from mid-April 2018.
 Almost 100,000 people have been treated for malnutrition
 Large-scale vaccination programmes have been launched to try to minimise the risk of disease. By mid-January
2018, 315,000 children under 15 years of age had received a five-in-one vaccination, including cover for diptheria,
tetanus and whooping cough.
 47,639 temporary emergency latrines have been built Bangladesh military

The UN Security Council appealed to Myanmar to stop the violence but no sanctions have been imposed
The UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has said an act of genocide against Rohingya Muslims by state forces in
Myanmar cannot be ruled out
The US urged Myanmar's troops to "respect the rule of law, stop the violence and end the displacement of civilians from
all communities". China says the international community "should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the
stability of its national development"
Bangladesh plans to build more shelters in the Cox's Bazaar area but also wants to limit their travel to allocated
areas. Myanmar urged displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps set up in Rakhine state. In November
Bangladesh signed a deal with Myanmar to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but few details have been
released. The UK has pledged £59m in aid to support those fleeing to Bangladesh. UK Prime Minister Theresa May also
said the military action in Rakhine had to stop. The UK has suspended training courses for the Myanmar military

Here are six key ways the UN is taking action to protect Rohingya refugees this monsoon season – and why your help
matters:
 Relocating to Safer Ground
According to studies from the UN Migration Agency (IOM), an estimated 120,000 people in Cox’s Bazar will be at grave
risk from flooding and landslides over the next several months. To reduce these risks, IOM, the UN Refugee Agency
(UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP) established the Joint Maintenance Engineering Project to create
structural solutions. One key output is the preparation of a 12-acre plot on stable ground for shelters and other key
services for nearly 500 families currently living on sandy hillsides on some of the most at-risk parts of the site.
 Strengthening Shelters
For those who cannot be immediately relocated, UN agencies are working to distribute shelter upgrade kits, containing
ropes, bamboo, tarpaulin, and tools, to more than 120,000 households. IOM is also helping to strengthen and stabilize
shelters by leading community training on shelter upgrades and disaster risk reduction. So far, more than 37,000
households have been trained.
 Dredging and Renovating Canals
As part of the Joint Maintenance Engineering Project, UN agencies are dredging and renovating over nine kilometers of
abandoned canals in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya sub-district to prevent flooding and allow water runoff during heavy rains. In
addition, renovation efforts will also clear key access roads to ensure the continued flow of aid and services.
 Promoting the Health of Girls and Women
Since the Rohingya refugee crisis began, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has established reproductive health clinics and
safe spaces in the camps of Cox’s Bazar to address the health needs of women and girls, including providing essential
antenatal care to more than 72,000 women. Since these needs do not go away in natural disasters, UNFPA is reinforcing
existing structures to withstand heavy rains and preparing contingency plans, such as relocating services.
 Minimizing Hunger
In addition to ensuring the safe delivery of food by improving drainage channels and stabilizing slopes, WFP is expanding
its e-voucher program to cover all existing refugees and the influx of new refugees. Currently, more than 800,000
refugees in Cox’s Bazar receive WFP food assistance every month. To minimize increasing vulnerability to hunger, the e-
voucher program will give families more flexibility to when they can shop and what foods they can eat, including greater
access to more nutritious foods such as vegetables, eggs, and dried fish.
 Addressing Health Risks
Floods pose numerous risks to health and well-being – from immediate injuries to the transmission of water-borne
diseases, including dysentery and cholera, in the aftermath. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners
are enacting disaster-response plans to ensure health services: relocating health facilities vulnerable to flooding,
establishing rehydration points, continuing vital vaccine campaigns, and more.