Why are Rohingya refugees risking their lives at sea? | Explained Premium

Dramatic rescue of Rohingya refugees highlights dangerous sea journeys, dire conditions in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The story so far: The dramatic rescue of dozens of Rohingya refugees from the Indian Ocean last week after a wooden boat with nearly 150 on board capsized off the Indonesian coast has once again drawn attention to the plight of the refugees who are increasingly embarking on dangerous sea journeys to seek a better life.

On March 21, an Indonesian search and rescue team saved 69 people at sea, about 20 km off the western coast of Aceh province, hours after their foundering boat capsized following a long journey from Bangladesh, alongside another vessel that had come to their aid. Visuals showed exhausted men, women and children soaked from overnight rain struggling for space on the overturned boat’s rusty hull as rescuers pulled them to safety.

With around 75 Rohingya rescued and the remaining feared drowned, the incident is a reflection of the growing desperation that is driving the refugees to flee Myanmar and overcrowded relief camps in Bangladesh for safer Southeast Asian countries. As per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 4,500 Rohingya refugees set off on dangerous journeys across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea last year. Of these, 569 people lost their lives or went missing, marking the highest death toll since 2014.

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority ethnic group with their roots in the Arakan kingdom in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Describing the etymological origins of the term Rohingya, the Council on Foreign Relations notes thatRohang derives from the word ‘Arakan’ in the Rohingya dialect and ga or gya means from.

The Rohingya claim to have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for generations, but successive governments in the country have disputed their ties, labelling them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya are culturally and religiously distinct from the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar, and speak a Bengali dialect which is different from the common Burmese language. Myanmar has refused to recognise them as an ethnic group, denying them citizenship since 1982, thus making them the world’s largest stateless population, devoid of fundamental rights and security.

According to Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law, members of the Rohingya community, along with other ethnic minorities, can only attain citizenship if they prove their ancestors resided in Myanmar before 1823. Otherwise, even if one of their parents is a Myanmar citizen, they are deemed to be “resident foreigners” or “associate citizens.”

After decades of discrimination, violence and persecution at the hands of security forces, the Rohingya began fleeing Myanmar in significant numbers first in 2012, following a military crackdown triggered by the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman in a Rohingya-dominated area which flared tensions between the Rohingya and Rakhine’s Buddhist community. Since then, escalating tensions in the region have often erupted into violence, leading hundreds of thousands to abandon their home and seek refuge in the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.