References

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Political Discourse

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Prof. R S Yadav

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Forced Migration and Statelessness: A Study of Rohingya in Myanmar

Munde

Rohidas

¹Dr Rohidas Munde, Assistant Professor, Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai

1122016

22105110

2016

IndianJournals.com

Forced migration of Rohingya is considered as a deconstruction of the modern nation-state system. The very existence of the state is to protect the individuals. The plight of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh and elsewhere in neighbouring countries since the late 1970s complicated their status as well as their statelessness. The government of Myanmar denied providing any kind of recognition to the Rohingya community which consist around more than one million people in the northern state of Arakan or Rakhine near the Myanmar– Bangladesh border facing the problems including the right to acquire citizenship. The issue of Muslim Rohingya crisis has not limited to the Myanmar but it has been disrupting the bilateral relations between Myanmar and Bangladesh since the late 1970s. Forced migration and stateless refugees have become one of the non-traditional security issues in the recent decades. It is estimated that there are at least 10 million stateless people in the world today suffering with different problems. As the stateless have no formally recognized nationality or citizenship, they are often unable to avail themselves of the legal and diplomatic protections of any country. The absence of citizenship often denies individuals the ability to exercise rights and increases their vulnerability. This paper explores the crisis of Rohingya as a Muslim minority in Myanmar and their forced migration to Bangladesh where they took refuge causing disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar in this regard

Historically, the Arakan region was ruled by the Muslim rulers till 1784. Later on, it was captured by the British, after capturing Bengal in 1757, the British Rulers kept expanding their rule. They captured Arakan in 1825 and Burma in 1828, and placed the two regions under the Viceroy of Delhi. Hundreds of thousands of Bengalis flooded into Arakan in search of work. By 1941, one-third of population was from Bengal. This migration was resented by the locals,¹ and the problem began. The local considers that the Rohingyas are not the original inhabitant of the region; they are migrants, so they do not have any moral right to claim anything over here. The largest groups in the state are the Rakhine, who are Buddhist, and there is a significant Muslim minority, including the Rohingya. The grievances of the Rakhine are similar to those of Myanmar's other ethnic minorities – including longstanding discrimination by the state, a lack of political control over their own affairs, economic marginalization, human rights abuses and restrictions on language and cultural expression. Muslim communities, in particular the Rohingya, have over the years been progressively marginalized from social and political life. Many have long been denied full citizenship.

Among the 3 million Rakhines, there are about 1.3 million Rohingyas in Rakhine State who have been living there for centuries. On the ground that since they are living there for centuries they are also equal citizens of the modern Myanmar and have equal rights as majority people enjoy there. Others are Buddhists who are in majority. On any cost Buddhist are not ready to accept them a equal citizens of the Myanmar which resulted in frequent violence and attacks on the Rohingyas. In 1942, the Buddhists carried out massive genocide of Muslims and almost 150000 Muslims were massacred. During the Junta rule in Myanmar, the Rohingyas ethnic people were often subjects to attacks and atrocities by military establishment.

The Rohingya, a Muslim religious ethnic community is living basically in Myanmar's western Rakhine State. After decades of discriminatory State policies, the Rohingya are now often described as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Nearly half of the century, Myanmar was run by military juntas that implemented harsh policies of internal repression and international isolation. World has experienced many military ruler and their ruthless policies in respect of minority communities. That began to change in Myanmar after 2011 as the military surprisingly transferred power to a quasi-civilian government, released political prisoners, and invited foreign investment.² But the persecution of Rohingyas has not ended. Civilian rule to them is like only change in the rules and not the policies. The issues of citizenship or other rights have not been addressed by the civilian government. Security establishment of Myanmar government often beat and mistreated Rohingya, resulting in deaths. The Myanmar as the member of United Nations is also subject to the UN Declaration of 1948. It requires prior permission of Law Enforcement Officials to use force employing nonviolent measures prior to using force.³

This religious ethnic minority community has been called the world's most persecuted minority. They form the largest single group of stateless people on the earth around 1.5 million out of a total of 10 million. And, so they have no legal rights in the country that 1.1 million live in, namely Myanmar4. Without any legal protection by State, the Rohingya have been subject to discrimination and physical abuse and violence in the western Myanmar. This culminated in the complete ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya from the State capital of Sittwe in 2012, after which about 140,000 of them were forced into extremely dirty refugee camps. Some scholar and policy makers have begun to call this as a new genocide. Since then, out of frustration, thousands have tried to flee by boat to start new life in different countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In the first quarter of this year alone, 25,000 people paid traffickers to flee by boat from western Myanmar and Bangladesh.⁴ One can simply understand the gravity of the situation of the people of the Rohingya's.

In the year 1982, the government issued an order which made them almost stateless, leaving them stateless and vulnerable to abuse. In addition, approximately 10 percent of the Rohingya population is currently detained in camps as displaced persons. They were facing the problems such as lack adequate access to health care, education, and employment and so forth.⁵ It is because of government does not recognize them as full citizens of Myanmar. The legal and practical constraints imposed by the Citizenship Act of 1982. It has made difficult for the Rohingya to be recognized as citizens of Myanmar. The Myanmar Citizenship Law 1982 created three categories of citizens: citizens, associate citizens and naturalized citizens5. Full citizenship is restricted to the certain ethnic groups who settled in Burma prior to 1823. The Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya to be a national ethnic group because they have settled after that date. The Rohingya are therefore excluded from full citizenship.⁶

Since independence, a series of laws have defined (and redefined) who is eligible for citizenship. At present citizenship is governed by the 1982 Myanmar Citizenship Law and its 1983 Procedures, which replaced the 1948 Union Citizenship Act and its 1949 Regulations. The 1948 act defined as a citizen any person, inter alia, who: (i) was born of parents who belonged to any of the indigenous races of Myanmar; or (ii) was born within Myanmar and having at least one grandparent from any of the indigenous races; or (iii) was descended from persons who had made Myanmar their permanent home for two generations, and the person and their parents were all born in Myanmar; or (iv) was born within the territory of Myanmar after 4 January 1948 and one of whose parents was a citizen.⁷

The 1954 Convention on Refugees defines a stateless person as someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”. This definition is now part of customary international law, and thus applies also to states not party to the Convention. In addition to being stateless, the majorities of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar are refugees and thus have a right to protection under international law, and specifically the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.⁸ Another one very harsh restriction on Rohingya is restriction on marriage. Marriage restriction legislation is one of the most important problems. In the 1990s, Myanmar passed a law that required all people in Rakhine State to gain permission before obtaining marriage licenses. This law was enforced only against the Muslim populations of the area. It has been done in context of population control policies in 1993 and 2005, respectively that state that the Rohingya population is reproducing faster than the international standards of population increase. The authorities have offered no evidence to support these assertions.

In this case, Relative Deprivation theory is completely applicable. This theory is used to explain social, political, economic and organizational problems. The exponent of the theory is an American sociologist Stouffer who says the feeling of relative deprivation in long run results in movement. The source of all the social or political movements is deprivation. The feelings of relative deprivation arise when legitimate desire is deliberately blocked by particular social group or political group. This kind of deprivation resulted in conflicts. The existing empirical studies on conflict have shown the relationship between the conflict and levels of underdevelopment and inequality, we show that changes in inequality over time can play an important role, in particular when trying to understand the geographic expansion and escalation of the conflict.⁹ Feelings of relative deprivation arise when desires become legitimate expectations and those desires are blocked by society. Feelings of relative deprivation arise when desires become legitimate expectations and those desires are blocked by society

Relative deprivation theory refers to the idea that feelings of deprivation and discontent are related to a desired point of reference (i.e., reference groups). Feelings of relative deprivation arise when desires become legitimate expectations and those desires are blocked by society. Social satisfaction is the opposite of relative deprivation. Relative deprivation is generally considered to be the central variable in the explanation of social movements and is used to explain the quest for social change that inspires social movements; social movements emerge from collective feelings of relative deprivation.

Relative deprivation theory is applied to sociopolitical, economic, and organizational problems. For example, relative deprivation theory is used to analyze the organizational issues of pay satisfaction and sex-based pay inequities. Relative deprivation theory focuses on feelings and actions. For example, the theory encourages the exploration of an individual's feelings of deprivation that may result from comparing his or her situation with that of a referent person or group as well as the behavioral effects of deprivation feelings. Relative deprivation theory distinguishes between egoistic deprivation and fraternal deprivation.

To obtain marriage licenses, men and women must adhere to rules that conflict with Rohingya religious beliefs. The rules require that men shave their beards for their license photographs. Similarly, the rules prohibit women from wearing religious head and face coverings. The NaSaKa have reportedly touched Rohingya women to determine if they are pregnant. Authorities have required Rohingya women to take pregnancy tests before issuing marriage permits. Some couples have continued to marry under Islamic law as practice before the 1990s legislation. But they run risk of arrest if the authorities find out. People who cohabit but are not legally married and even people who are in romantic relationships but not living under the same roof are also at risk of arrest.¹⁰ The Rohingya women who became pregnant without official marriage authorization often led to abrogation that further led to maternal deaths. Some use to register their newborn child with another legally married couple to avoid any kind of state persecution. Some couple prefers to deliver baby secretly in Bangladesh, as it is easy to cross the border, and abandon their baby there. It is found that there are many unregistered children.¹¹ After the year 2005, the government has allowed some Rohingya couples to obtain marriage licenses only if they agree to have no more than two children. Women in legal marriages who have more than two children and women who have children out of wedlock are subject to possible prison sentences of up to ten years. A government document marked for “internal circulation” and dated May 1, 2005—circulated again November 2, 2008— includes six discriminatory requirements for Rohingya married couples to obtain permission from the authorities for moving in the same territory, seven requirements for moving to a different territory, and five requirements for moving out. The internal communication, the legal basis of which is unclear, clarifies that married persons attempting to move to a new house, a new township, or elsewhere, must first fill out an application to be reviewed by local authorities. This kind of restrictions on mobility has devastating consequences on their access to market, employment, opportunities, health facilities and higher education. Those who overstay the time allowed them by the authorities, their travel passes are prevented from returning to their villages as their names are deleted from their family list.¹² Even in the emergencies they have to apply for travel permission to avail medical treatment. If patient is in very critical condition and they want go to Bangladesh for better medical treatment thy have to take permission otherwise their names will not be in the list after coming back. Likewise those who wants to pursue their study outside their village needs to get travel permission. And, during examination period, most of the time it becomes very difficult to get permission which result in missing the examination. Therefore, many Rohingyas think not to go outside for the study which also main treason for their illiteracy, that is 80 per cent. The right of everyone to work is entrenched in the ICESCR, and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. Despite Thailand's obligations under international law, most Rohingya cannot enjoy their right to work in Thailand. Under the Alien Working Act (2008), foreigners require a work permit and can only be employed in accordance with regulations issued by the Ministry of Labour.¹³

References1

Asif

Hrun Raja

, 2015, The Plight and Persecution of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, Global Research, 2015.

Freedom House, 2015, Myanmar's Muslim Minority: The Plight of the Rohingya, https://freedomhouse.org/blog/myanmar-s-muslim-minority-plight-rohingya.

8th U.N. Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, Aug. 27 to Sept. 7, 1990, Basic Principles on the Use of Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, 4, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1, [hereinafter Basic Principles]. 94 Id. Irish Centre for Human Rights, 2010, Crimes Against Humanity, in Western Burma: The Situation of the Rohingyas.

Refugee Study Centre, 2009, North Arakan: An Open Prison for the Rohingya in Burma.

Section 3 of the Burma Citizenship Law 1982, Pyithu Hluttaw Law No 4 of 1982, defines citizens as “nationals such as the Kachin, Kayak, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine or Shan and ethnic groups as have settled in any of the territories…from a period anterior to 1185 BE 1823 AD”.

Section 4 of the Burma Citizenship Law 1982, the “Council of State may decide whether any ethnic group is national or not”. In addition to those mentioned specifically in section 3, the Myanmar Government recognizes 135 national races of Myanmar. The Rohingya are not amongst them: Amnesty International, Myanmar, The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied, 52004, footnote.

The 1948 Act, “indigenous races” to include the eight major ethnic groups (listed as Rakhine, Burman, Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Mon, Shan) as well as “such racial group as has settled in any of the territories included within the Union as their permanent home from a period anterior to 1823 A.D”. (section 3 of the act). No official declaration was made concerning which “racial groups”.

United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 360 U.N.T.S. 117, 1954, Article 1(1).

Samuel Stouffer, 2015,” Samuel Stouffer and Relative Deprivation”, American Sociologist Association, Sage.

Myanmar Penal Code 188.

Fortify Rights, Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, pp. 19-20, 36 (Feb. 2014), http://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Policies_of_Persecution_Feb_25_Fortify_Rights.pdf.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Guidelines on Statelessness No. 1: The definition of “Stateless Person” in Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 2022012, HCR/GS/12/01, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4f4371b82.html.

According to Article 7 ICESCR, states also have an obligation to protect the rights of workers and ensure just and favourable conditions of work including fair and equal wages sufficient for a decent living, safe and healthy working conditions, equal opportunity within work and the limitation of work hours and adequate paid holidays, rest and leisure, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1976,G.A. Res 2200A (XXI), (ICESCR).