Neglected in displacement, trapped in banishment: Nowhere to go for the Rohingyas? — Mohd Hazmi bin Mohd Rusli

May 19 — Recently, the issue of Rohingya refugees has made its limelight again in the international arena.

In their final act of desperation, Rohingya migrants left their homeland in thousands and set sail to any possible greener pastures in a number of relatively small vessels to avoid persecution back home. Drifted hundreds of kilometers south of Myanmar, the Rohingyas were left abandoned on these boats cramped in such inhumanely conditions with little or no food and water.

Some of these boats ended up in Thailand, a few in Malaysia and the rest in Indonesia. The governments of these countries have so far denied entry of any of vessels carrying the Rohingya refugees into their shores. Neglected in displacement, trapped in banishment, where could the Rohingyas turn to for help?

History

The Rohingyas are Muslims who reside in the northern province of Rakhine in Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh and they are ethnically and linguistically distinct to the other ethnic groups in Myanmar. While there are opinions that the Rohingyas are indigenous to the province of Rakhine, other scholars argued that they started to migrate from Bengal and settled in Rakhine as traders as early as the fifteenth century. The Rohingyas arrived in huge numbers into Myanmar only during the British colonial rule in the nineteenth century to work in farms as labourers. This migration ended after Myanmar attained independence in 1948.

This situation could be likened to the emigration of the non-Malays into Malaya. The first migration of the Chinese into Malaya took place during the era of the Malacca Sultanate in the fifteenth century but the number was small. These first groups of Chinese immigrants were later known as the Baba-Nyonyas of Malacca. However, the British colonial rule encouraged mass migration of both Chinese and Indians into Malaya in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries as cheap labourers to accommodate Malaya’s developing tin mining industries and its expanding rubber plantations.

Be that as it may, the Rohingya immigrants in Myanmar and the non-Malay immigrants in Malaysia (then Malaya) experienced different destinies. While the Chinese and Indian immigrants were conditionally accepted by the Malays and were granted citizenship upon independence of Malaya in 1957, the Rohingyas were persecuted, discriminated against in an ‘apartheid-like’ system of social administration and they were treated with hostilities by the predominantly Buddhist nation to the extent of being denied citizenship.

Persecution

There are about 2 million Rohingyas around the world and the bulk of the population is in Myanmar, where about 735, 000 residing mainly in the northern Rakhine townships where they form 90 per cent of the population as of 2013. There are about 40, 000 Rohingyas living in Malaysia at the moment.

International media and human rights organisations have described Rohingyas as “among the world’s least wanted” and “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities”. They have been denied Myanmarese citizenship ever since the enactment of 1982 Citizenship Law.

They are not allowed to travel without official permission and were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children. This law however, was not strictly enforced. As a result of these persecutions, most of them have fled to ghettos and refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, and to areas along the Thai-Myanmar border. In addition, they have also headed south towards Malaysia and Indonesia to seek refuge. The Rohingyas received international attention in the wake of 2012 Rakhine State riots.

The 2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts between Rohingya Muslims who are majority in the northern Rakhine and ethnic Rakhines who are majority in the south. Before the riots, there were widespread fears circulating among Buddhist Rakhines that the increasing number of Rohingya population would soon turn them into minority in their own ancestral land.

The riots finally took place after series of disputes including a gang rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by Rohingyas and killing of ten Myanmarese Muslims by Rakhines. According to the Myanmarese authorities, the violence left 78 people dead, 87 injured, displacing up to 140,000 people.

Earlier, the United Nations (UN) initiated an effort to return the Rohingyas back to Rakhine.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were unable to return due to the 2012 communal violence and fear of persecution. In recent years, Dhaka has reduced the amount of support for Rohingyas to prevent an outflow of refugees to Bangladesh.

Thousands of Rohingyas have also fled to Thailand and Malaysia. There was evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea. A group of refugees rescued in February 2009 by the Indonesian authorities told that they were captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at sea. Between the years of 2009 to 2014, many Rohingyas were also smuggled into Malaysia by human traffickers to seek a better life. Some of them ended in a number of detention camps around Malaysia.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that some 6000 out of 8000 Rohingyas have been out at sea since early March 2015 and have been wandering without a clear destination off the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. This pressing situation was kept silent from the world until the issue of Rohingya boat people again made it to the headlines in May 2015.

Rohingya refugees

While there are Bangladeshi economic migrants on board these vessels trying to escape poverty back home, majority of the refugees are the stateless Rohingyas. Left in the state of despair, these refugees were abandoned with little or no food and water by human traffickers after a regional crackdown on smuggling networks. Only a few boats have been able to reach safe shore including the one that landed illegally in Langkawi carrying 1,158 refugees last week. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have announced that they are not prepared to take in the refugees, but are willing to provide those on board with humanitarian aids – food and water supply.

In addition, the Malaysian Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Dr. Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar reiterated that Malaysia cannot be regarded willing to host illegal immigrants and will send these refugees back to their homeland. At the moment, the Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian navies are keeping these refugee boats off their territorial seas leaving them drifting in the middle of nowhere.

Is Malaysia acting within the limits of international law?

All foreign ships are allowed to enter the territorial seas of any countries provided that these vessels exercise the right of innocent passage. As explained in Article 19 (1) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (LOSC) 1982, passage is innocent as long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Article 19 (2) (l) of the LOSC further provides that a vessel that is engaging ‘any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage’ is deemed to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State.

The refugee boats clearly are not exercising the right of innocent passage as they were found drifting, not navigating. Thus, the Malaysian, Thai and the Indonesian authorities possess rights to deny entry of these boats as they may be considered prejudicial to the good order of these littoral States.

Malaysia is a non State-party to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (CRSR) 1951 or its 1967 Protocol. Therefore, Malaysia is not, in any way bound by the requirements of the CRSR, namely to presume the innocence of refugees and to abide by the principle of non-refoulement, or in other words, is not barred from returning these refugees back to their home country. Despite this, it has been argued that the principle of non-refoulement has attained the status of customary international law and therefore is applicable to all countries. This argument, however, is not absolute and remains a subject matter of debate.

Based on these facts, it is not too simplistic to state that Malaysia has not violated any international regulations in denying entry of these Rohingya illegal immigrants. This is done in order to safeguard the nation’s good order from the potential social and health problems that might crop up should the refugees are allowed to disembark on Malaysian shores. Malaysia should not be lambasted for refusing to harbour these refugees as there are already 40, 000 Rohingyas residing in Malaysia particularly in the Kuala Lumpur suburbs of Selayang, popularly known as ‘Little Myanmar’.

It is true that the European Union (EU) countries like the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy have been accepting economic refugees from Northern Africa for quite some time. Unlike the EU, Malaysia and its immediate neighbours, Thailand and Indonesia are developing countries with relatively limited means if compared to their European counterparts. Having said this, current reports have shown that the EU is no longer interested to take in economic migrants from North Africa due to the escalating number of boat people coming into European shores amounting to more than 60, 000 refugees. 

Solving the plight of the Rohingyas

The persecution against the Rohingyas is one of the largest humanitarian disasters that have ever taken place in the Asean region, alongside with the massacre of Cambodians by the Pol Pot Regime, the civil war in the then Timor-Timur (now Timor-Leste) and the Vietnam War. The plight of the Rohingyas is further aggravated by the fact they are stateless. Hence, a big question crops up – are they not citizens of Asean countries? Citizens or no citizens, Asean should still hold responsibility as this humanitarian disaster takes place within Asean. As no countries within Asean are willing to take them in, Asean nations should persuade and put pressures on Myanmar to step in. As the country of origin of the Rohingyas, Myanmar should provide them with the right of abode and allow the Rohingyas to return to their homeland, free from persecution. 

If this is not an option, Malaysia, as the chairman of Asean could initiate talks with the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to resolve the persecution against the Rohingya Muslims. A scheme of ‘adopted countries’ could be fashioned to house these unwanted Muslims in certain designated migration centres within that country and in return, the Rohingyas would provide the host-country with the source of cheap labour. Most Middle-Eastern OIC State members are wealthy nations that possess the means to execute this proposed plan. Nevertheless, this scheme should be closely monitored so as not to allow the re-introduction of modern-day slavery. The question of whether or not these refugees may eventually apply for the status of permanent residence or citizenship is up to the discretion of the OIC countries involved in this proposed scheme. It may not be possible for the OIC to emulate the British plan of the creation of the State of Israel for stateless Jews almost a century ago as this involve a question of sovereignty – no country would want to lose parts of their territory just to accommodate the Rohingyas.

These are the two proposed plans that could be considered to end the plight of the Rohingyas in the long run. Meanwhile, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand should not be left alone to take responsibilities in tackling the influx of Rohingya refugees into their shores as the number of refugees is increasing everyday. On the other hand, these refugees should not forever be left stateless as they are, like everyone else, human beings too.

Conclusion

This incident is a manifestation that human rights are only available to selected people only, and the Rohingyas are those without this privilege. As such, Asean, the OIC and the world community should work together to ensure that this humanitarian calamity would not last long. 

Neglected in displacement, trapped in banishment, thousands of Rohingyas are still drifting in  the rocky waters of the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea, wishing for better futures in foreign lands that are undeniably beyond their reach. 

* Dr. Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli is a visiting professor at the School of Law, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia and a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Syariah and Law, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.