Nasreen Chowdhory - Citizenship, Nationalism and Refugeehood of Rohingyas in Southern Asia

The official agenda for justice of migrants have always been set by the global north. The notion of a refugee as a legal category was born out of the Refugee Convention of 1951. It has been argued by scholars such as B. S. Chimni that the characterization of refugee as elucidated in the 1951 Convention was Eurocentric. Therefore, none of the South Asian countries felt any urge to become a signatory to the Convention. In South Asia, the largest refugee-generating phenomenon was the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 where, by a conservative estimate, 15 million people were displaced. The Refugee Convention did not make any specific provisions toward the partition refugees, who were a special category of the displaced, and so the apathy of the South Asian states to be a signatory to the Convention. However, most of the South Asian countries endorsed the principles ofnon-refoulementportraying that they were willing to accept northern standards on justice. This proved to be extremely critical because with the changes in the European and other northern regions attitude to justice for the migrants/displaced South Asian attitudes to the displaced changed profoundly. The largest number of partition refugees was rehabilitated not just institutionally but also through individual initiatives. But progressively with the change in the northern gaze on refugees, South Asian gaze shifted too. That South Asian attitude to refugees has become analogous to European attitude to the African refugees in the present times can be ascertained if one studies South Asian attitude to the Rohingya refugees.

Arguably, the word Rohingya came from the word Rohang, which was the historical name given to Arakan. The treaty of Yandaboo of 1826 led to the absorption of the Arakan Hills into the British Empire. The border between Arakan and Bengal was always porous leading to cross-border exchanges;and during the nineteenth century, the Arakan region witnessed migrations from Bengali Muslims into the Arakan Hills. These Bengali Muslims hailed from Chittagong. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that there was a Muslim presence in the Arakan Hills even before the arrival of the Bengali Muslims from Chittagong. After Burmas independence in 1948, the political demands of the Buddhist and the Muslims from the Arakan Hills were never met. In 1962 when Ne Win seized power, the situation of ethnic and religious minorities became precarious. Consequently, in 1982, the new Citizenship Act made it impossible for Muslims to become full citizens and they were given the status of associate citizen. As for the Rohingyas, they became a stateless community in 1982 when the Myanmar citizenship law excluded them from the list of 135 national ethnic groups.

The situation of Rohingyas became progressively more precarious. For decades, Rohingyas have been subjected to excessive violence. In 1989, the Myanmar government issued a colour-coded scrutiny card for citizens, but Rohingyas were not issued any card. On 21 February 1992, U. Ohn Gyaw, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Myanmar, announced: Historically, there has never been a Rohingya race in Myanmar? Since the first Anglo-Myanmar War in 1824, people of Muslim faith from the adjacent country illegally entered Myanmar Naing-Ngan, particularly Rakhine State. Being illegal immigrants, they do not hold immigration papers like other nationals of the country. From 1995, as a result of enormous pressure from the UNHCR, the Rohingyas were given a white card that could not be used to claim citizenship as that card did not mention a persons citizenship. Thereafter, the situation of the Rohingyas did not improve at all.

In 2015, the trials and tribulations of Rohingyas became known to the world when it was discovered that hundreds of Rohingyas were perishing in the boats as they were trying to escape persecution in Myanmar. None of the other countries in the region were willing to take in the Rohingyas. The plight of Rohingyas in high seas led to protest by international human rights regime when open graves were discovered in Thailand. This more than any other event revealed the precarious situation of the Rohingya population. For the Rohingyas, there are no safe options. In March 2017, another crackdown of Rohingya Muslims was defended by the Myanmar government as counter-insurgency operations. Social scientists call the Rohingyas the worlds most persecuted minority without citizenship. As for Rohingya women, their situation is even worse. According to one observer, because of the diversity among Burmas 135 officially-recognized ethnic groups generalizing about them is risky. However, there clearly exists a country-wide pattern to the abuses suffered by Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan, Kachin, Chin, Arakanese, Rohingya, and other ethnic women. Among the groups mentioned, the Rohingya women are worst off because they belong to a stateless community. A 440-page report by UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) released in August 2018 details the persistence of crime against Rohingya women in Myanmar. The report includes accounts of women tied by their hair or hands to trees then raped; young children trying to flee burning houses but forced back inside; widespread use of torture with bamboo sticks, cigarettes and hot wax; and landmines placed at the escape routes from villages, killing people as they fled army crackdowns.