Rohingya

Rohingya, term commonly used to refer to a community of Muslims generally concentrated in Rakhine (Arakan) state in Myanmar (Burma), although they can also be found in other parts of the country as well as in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh and other countries. They are considered to be among the most persecuted minorities in the world. In the early 21st century, the Rohingya made up an estimated one-third of the population in Rakhine state, with Buddhists constituting a significant proportion of the remaining two-thirds.

The use of the term Rohingya is highly contested in Myanmar. Rohingya political leaders have maintained that theirs is a distinct ethnic, cultural, and linguistic community that traces its ancestry as far back as the late 7th century. (See also Arakanese.) However, the broader Buddhist populace in general rejected the Rohingya terminology, referring to them instead as Bengali, and considered the community to be largely composed of illegal immigrants from present-day Bangladesh. During the 2014 census—the first to be carried out in 30 years—the Myanmar government made an 11th-hour decision to not enumerate those who wanted to self-identify as Rohingya and would count only those who accepted the Bengali classification. The move was in response to a threatened boycott of the census by Rakhine Buddhists.

Almost all Rohingya in Myanmar are stateless, unable to obtain “citizenship by birth” in Myanmar because the 1982 Citizenship Law did not include the Rohingya on the list of 135 recognized national ethnic groups. The law had historically been arbitrarily applied in relation to those, such as the Rohingya, who did not fall strictly within the list of recognized ethnic nationalities. Since 2012, other developments, including a series of proposed legislative measures (some of which were passed by Myanmar’s parliament), resulted in further restrictions on the limited rights of the Rohingya.

Since the last quarter of the 20th century, many Rohingya have periodically been forced to flee their homes—either to other areas in Myanmar or to other countries—because of intercommunal violence between them and the Buddhist community in Rakhine state or, more commonly, campaigns by Myanmar’s army, of which they were the target. Significant waves of displacement have occurred, including those in 1978, 1991–92, 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017.