In Rakhine, the Arakan Army – like the military junta – is forcibly recruiting men and women, exacerbating the civil war and aggravating the humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, Rohingya face continued abuses after fleeing abroad. India is accused of arbitrarily detaining refugees and illegally pushing some back at sea, while fuelling the stigmatisation of Muslim refugees at home.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Myanmar’s military junta is not alone in trying to recruit young people as fodder in the civil war that has been raging in the country since 2021. Recently, the Arakan Army (AA), one of the main ethnic militias in Rakhine State, also decided to prevent people from moving in order to beef up its ranks.

In AA-controlled areas, its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), banned men aged 18 to 45 and women aged 18 to 25 from leaving the state, allowing travel only for serious health emergencies.

The ULA justified the step by saying that it is needed to protect people from the risk of capture by the military junta, stepping on anti-personnel mines, or becoming victims of traffickers.

In March, the ULA issued an emergency order allowing the AA to conscript adults up to the age of 45, to protect Arakan people, the organisation said, adding that travel restrictions will end once Rakhine State is pacified.

These controversial statements are evidence of what has been documented, namely that the AA, like Myanmar’s Armed Forces, has been guilty of serious violence against ethnic Rohingya, a stateless, mostly Muslim ethnic group.

Several witnesses note that both the military and the ethnic militia are fighting to seize Rohingya’s lands, sparking an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the state.

Although the AA now controls 14 out of 17 townships, thousands of Rohingya are still trying to leave Rakhine for safety abroad, where they struggle to find acceptance.

It is estimated that in 2017, about 700,000 Rohingya left Myanmar to take refuge in Bangladesh because of persecution by the military.

In refugee camps in Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh), the Rohingya are often targeted by extremist Islamic groups fighting the AA if they seek an end to violence in Rakhine.

Those who try to flee by sea put their life at risk. Earlier this month, at least three boats trying to reach Cox's Bazar capsized and sank, causing hundreds of deaths.

According to the UN, over a million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, while other large communities are found in Malaysia (177,000), India (83,400), and Thailand (81,000).

In India, after implementing discriminatory policies against Muslims for years, the government is proving to be increasingly hostile towards Rohingya refugees as well.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for an investigation after reports claim that an Indian navy ship forced refugees to head for the Andaman Sea in early May.

“I am deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection,” said Tom Andrews, Myanmar's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

“Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, a fundamental tenet of international law that prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom,” Andrews said.

According to various international media reports, dozens of Rohingya who lived in Delhi with a regular refugee permit were picked up and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There, they were transferred to an Indian Navy ship, and, once they crossed the Andaman Sea, the refugees were given life jackets and told to swim to some islands belonging to Myanmar.

The refugees survived the swim to shore, but their current whereabouts and conditions are unknown, UN agencies said.

Between 6 and 9 May, while international attention was focused on rocket attacks between India and Pakistan, another 100 refugees, including at least 50 Rohingya, who were in a detention centre in the State of Assam, were transferred to the border with Bangladesh to be deported. The current location and condition of this group are also unknown.

India is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, but it allows the UNHCR to operate on its territory.

Most Rohingya refugees in India are concentrated in poor Delhi neighbourhoods. For months, activists who deal with their defence have been denouncing a rise in violent acts against them.

“During these police crackdowns, racial slurs are hurled, the refugees are questioned about whether they are Bangladeshi immigrants and detained arbitrarily, violating their rights,” the head of a nonprofit that provides training courses told Strait Times.

Analysts argue that India's recent pushbacks are part of the ultra-Hindu nationalist policies promoted by the ruling party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The Indian government’s political narrative clubs Rohingya refugees from Myanmar with undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, who have religious and linguistic similarities but little else, into one subgroup of unwanted immigrants,” said policy analyst Angshuman Choudhury, a joint doctoral candidate researching Myanmar at the National University of Singapore and King’s College, London.

In Myanmar, both the ruling military junta and the AA refer to the Rohingya as “Bengalis", stressing that they are foreigners, even though they have been present in the country for generations.

Between late April and the beginning of May, Indian authorities evicted more than 8,000 families without warning in the Lake Chandola area, Gujarat, describing them as "foreigners" or "Rohingya", writes The Wire, which was blocked by India after fighting broke out with Pakistan.

Increasingly, the term Rohingya in India is associated with vague security threats, stigmatising and marginalising Muslim communities, particularly those living in informal settlements, to justify the arbitrary demolition of their homes by the authorities.

Photo: UNHCR/Amanda Jufrian

• myanmar
• india
• bangladesh
• pakistan
• rohingya
• refugees
• persecution
• discrimination
• racism