Rohingyas have been staging token hunger strikes for two days – in parts of the Ukhiya refugee camp – demanding that their ethnic identity be included on the smart cards being provided by UNHCR.
These cards are being prepared by the UN Refugee Agency to facilitate the planned repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar from Bangladesh.
However, these identity documents do not mention the ethnicity of the refugees. A group of Rohingyas has refrained from accepting the cards and is not cooperating with UNHCR, said a source at the Inter-Sector Coordination Group.
“We have been demanding from the very beginning that Myanmar recognize our ethnicity, grant citizenship, and equal rights,” said Mohib Ullah, a leader of the Rohingya community. “Yet, we are worried because the word “Rohingya” is absent in the family list prepared for repatriation.”
Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Md Abul Kalam said he had heard about a token hunger strike by some Rohingyas at the camps and was going to check the matter for himself.
Who are the Rohingyas?
The Rohingyas are one of the ethnic minorities of Myanmar. They make up the largest percentage of Muslims in the country, living mainly in the natural resource-rich Rakhine State.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens although they have lived there for generations. The country sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
State-sponsored discrimination against the Rohingyas, often described as the most persecuted minority in the world, stretches back decades. They are denied basic rights, and in many cases, are forced to live in squalid camps in apartheid-like conditions.
The Rohingya crisis
Rohingyas have been migrating to various countries from Rakhine State since the 1970s—in search of better of lives and security. Many of them have ended up in Bangladesh. However, it is unclear how many of them have been successful in leaving Rakhine State.
Rohingyas numbered around one million in Myanmar, at the start of 2017, but since August last year, more than 700,000 of them fled to Bangladesh—a country already hosting several hundred thousand Rohinyga.
A brutal Myanmar offensive, following militant attacks on border outposts, triggered the latest exodus. The UN called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” The speed and scale of the influx is said to have turned it into the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crisis.
Dhaka and Naypyidaw have signed an agreement to repatriate the refugees but it has seen no apparent progress.
Earlier this month, Bangladesh called off the repatriation of some Rohingyas as none of the refugees, scheduled to go back to their homeland, showed up the repatriation meeting point.
Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, accused the Myanmar army and their local collaborators of: rape, murder, arson, loot, and torture—charges Myanmar denies. In October this year, A UN fact-finding team said an “ongoing genocide” was underway against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
