Why Southeast Asia faces a migration crisis this summer
(The Christian Science Monitor) Southeast Asia is facing its worst migration crisis since the years following the end of the Vietnam War. With thousands of Rohingya refugees stuck at sea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia have resorted to playing what a humanitarian agency calls “maritime ping-pong with human lives.”
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group that mainly lives in western Myanmar. Decades of state-sanctioned discrimination in the Buddhist-majority country has led the United Nations to label them one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Hundreds of Rohingya have died in recent years amid violent attacks by Buddhist mobs and Rohingya live in apartheid-like conditions in western Myanmar.
The Myanmar government refuses to recognize the 1.1 million Rohingya who live within its borders as citizens. Rather it considers them to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. As a result, rights groups say Rohingya have “no choice” but to leave. The UN refugee agency estimates more than 120,000 have fled in the past three years alone. Many pay human smugglers to help them out of the country.
