After the Mediterranean crisis now the Asian Boat People is making
headlines. Denied refuge by countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand the
rickety boats overcrowded with people is left adrift in the waters of Andaman
Sea. People overboard include the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar and the poor
hapless people of Bangladesh. Bowing down to international pressure Malaysia
and Indonesia today announced temporary shelter to the refugees provided International
aid agencies provide financial assistance towards the rehabilitation and repatriation
of the 7000 thousand odd refugees for a year. In a major relief governments of
both these countries ordered their navies to intensify rescue and search operations
of the boats headed towards their lands. Earlier Thailand offered little
succour to the refugees by providing the needed supplies like water and food
but refused to accommodate the migrants.
Thailand is exceedingly famous for the human trafficking
wherein smugglers charge a hefty sum of $2000 for a person to transport them the
concentration camps. Often people lodged in the concentration camps of Thailand
are released subject to receiving ransom from their family. Thus it has evolved
into a huge racket as concerned officials turned blind eye to all these
nefarious activities. But from May 1st owing to severe censure and
sanctions imposed by the international community on Thailand for the inhuman
treatment extended to the economic migrants and for wide spread human slavery
smuggling rackets were busted with heavy hand. Reports of UN indicate that
roughly 25,000 people have set sail from Bay of Bengal towards South East Asian
nations from January to March this year.
The situation of Asian boat people reminds of the fate of
Jews who in 1939 set off to Havana on a German ocean liner SS St. Louis to
escape persecution in Europe. But as the vessel docked Cuban harbour it was
turned away. Subsequently it moved to the ports of the US and Canada, but were
refused entry. The distraught and desperate Jews moved back to Europe where a
quarter of them perished in the concentration camps of the Nazi’s. While
history reminds of the grotesque incidents epitomising the shameful indictment
of nations even after seven decades things have hardly changed.
The emaciated, dehydrated and desperate people refugees are
now pleading nations for rescue and shelter. But neighbouring nations started
turning away the boats reaching their lands on a pretext that this might
encourage more people to embark on treacherous journey. Thankfully with severe
clamping down of the smuggling rackets the number of vessels starting from
Bangladesh has drastically come down. But nations are not coming forward to
rescue migrants as Myanmar doesn’t want to take back the Rohingyas. The stand
adopted by South East Asian nations is perfunctory. Meanwhile, Thailand has
called for an international summit on May 29th to discuss about the
regional approaches to combat the issue of human trafficking.
Setting aside the cooperation extended by the nations in the
region it is important to dwell into antecedents of mass migration of Rohingyas
from Myanmar. Rohingyas are muslim minority living the South Western Province
of Rakhine in Myanmar. Historians believe that they are indigenous to state of
Rakhine as they settled down in Myanmar in 15th century. But others
argue that they migrated from Bengal when Myanmar was part of the British India
after the first Anglo-Burmese in 1826 and also during the liberation of
Bangladesh in 1971. The dark skinned Rohingyas are pejoratively referred to as ‘Bengalis’
by Buddhist majority of Myanmar. During the Second World War Rohingyas fought British
for independence while the Rakhine state supported the Japanese army to
liberate them. This ideological incongruence persisted and deepened over a
period of time. In 1982 Rohingyas were stripped of the citizenship as they were
not recognised as one of the 135 national races of the country. Stricken by the state-sponsored persecution
they started fleeing to the Bangladesh-Burmese border.
From 2010 the brutal regimes of the generals in Myanmar began
to unleash anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim oppression vehemently. By April the
government began to with draw the temporary identity cards as the majority
Buddhists didn’t want Rohingyas to vote. Slowly government confiscated lands,
forced them to work as farm labourers, severe restrictions were imposed on
travelling and permits were required to marry. As a result there are now 30,000
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Rohingya issue caught international attention
following the Rakhine State riots of 2012. More than 1,00,000 people continue
to stay in concentration camps in Myanmar now. The chance of reversal of the
blatant discriminatory laws towards Rohingyas appears bleak as Aung San Suu
Kyi, the democratic icon hesitates to talk about Rohingyas for the fear of
offending the Buddhist majority regimes. Rohingyas situation in Myanmar can
only improve if the international community and the multilateral organisations
could pressurise the regime to change its stance.
Another half of the boat people includes economic migrants of
Bangladesh and it is disheartening to note that climate change has resulted in
unprecedented increase in economic refugees. The sea levels are consistently
rising engulfing the arable lands in Bangladesh and making villages
uninhabitable. According to a report about 50,000 people are migrating to the
capital city every month. Thus extreme climate changes are taking a severe toll
on poor countries like Bangladesh which are poor in resources and finances. The
desperate people are flocking to greener pastures. This situation truly propels
nations to make a collective effort to face future challenges. “There are more
displaced people in the world today than at any other time since the second
world war”. The trend of boat people in Andaman Sea or Mediterranean Sea is a
cause of great concern as people are fleeing persecution, poverty and conflict
to seek refuge in foreign lands. These refugee crisis calls a new radical
approach to mitigate the crisis of the boat people.
Published on the MyInd Makers website.
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