Genocide & Covid-19; The Plight Of The Myanmanese Rohingya

By Grace Calder

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PA Graphics. Map showing the geographical area central to the Rohingya humanitarian crisis.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group that, for hundreds of years, have been predominantly located in the Rakhine state area of Myanmar (formerly Burma). However, despite the Rohingya having been settled in Myanmar for centuries, they are consistently refused recognition as one of the countries 135 official ethnic groups. The Myanmanese government insist, despite a catalogue of evidence to dispute it, that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and the Rohingya are frequently referred to as ‘Bengalis’.

Islamophobia as a result of staunch nationalism as well as racism has fuelled what Amnesty International describes as apartheid conditions for the Rohingya in Myanmar. Enforced predominantly by the military (despite Myanmar having a supposedly civilian government since 2011) and reinforced by high profile religious leaders (Myanmar’s population is 90% Buddhist) persecution of the Muslim Rohingya is systemic and brutal.

Whilst the subjugation of the Rohingya in Myanmar is far from a recent occurrence (the group were officially denied recognition over 25 years ago via the Citizenship Law of 1982), apartheid conditions and the subsequent ethnic cleansing enacted against the Rohingya people has worsened in recent years. In 2012 waves of anti-Rohingya violence left 150,000 homeless with subsequent violent government ‘clearing operations’ following in 2016 and, most recently, 2017.

As a result, the segregation of the Rohingya from the rest of the population has become commonplace. The Rohingya people are denied access to state education, with the shutting down of ‘mixed’ ethnic schools in the Rakhine state during 2012. In the 2015 general election, the Rohingya were denied the right to vote (as a byproduct of their lack of recognised citizenship), thus strengthening the perpetuation of Rohingya persecution as a consequence of them having no public office representation.

The group are denied freedom of movement in Myanmar, the Rohingya specifically are required to hold travel permits which are checked at security posts between towns. Religious practice is also, invariably, limited. As well as the closure of many of the Mosques in the Rakhine state in 2012, the Rohingya are banned from gathering in groups larger than four, thus limiting collective “worship”.

However, these insidious measures placed on the Rohingya people are far from the most brutal elements of Myanmar’s state-sponsored subjugation of the Rohingya people. Whilst Myanmar routinely denies all violence toward the Rohingya, an array of refugee accounts has provided substantial evidence for a multitude of genocidal activities perpetrated by state officials against the group. This has included a variety of violence including the widespread rape of Rohingya women, military beatings, burnings and the decapitation of Rohingya followed by the subsequent bulldozing of villages in the effort to erase the Rohingya’s very existence.

Unsurprisingly, this brutality has led to many Rohingya people fleeing Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh where they remain as refugees. In 2018 The Economist reported that 700,000 people entered Bangladesh as Rohingya refugees. The group now find themselves situated in the world’s largest refugee camp, Kutupalong, in South-East Bangladesh.

Conditions here are becoming increasingly worse for the Rohingya that reside within the camp. Not only do residents have to contend with yearly Monsoon rains that threaten the poorly constructed shelters they live within but increased resistance from Bangladesh authorities to their presence has seen the settlement have phone reception cut and 3g availability restricted. This makes it progressively more difficult for the Rohingya to supply information on their current situation to aid agencies and international bodies, such as the UN, thus compounding their vulnerability. Furthermore, and of particular current importance given the Covid-19 pandemic faced globally, this contact restriction makes it significantly harder for reliable sources of information from outside the camp to reach refugees.

This lack of information has been the underlying theme for how the Rohingya have been forced to face the Coronavirus. After months of flimsy, rumour based information sifting through to the camps, the first two Covid-19 patients tested positive in the middle of May. With individual shelters often housing as many as nine people coupled with the largest population density of any refugee camp in the world, the prospects of successful social distancing measures are overwhelmingly unlikely. Whilst there is some hope that the predominantly young demographic of the camp means the virus might not be as deadly as it would be among older populations, the overall malnutrition of individuals as a result of three years spent as refugees means many experts and aid groups are increasingly worried about the impacts of the Coronavirus spreading quickly. A study completed by John Hopkins University in Maryland on the situation has estimated 500,000 cases of coronavirus within the camp over the next 3 months.

Essentially, the Coronavirus is acting as a stark and deadly threat multiplier to the already staggeringly precarious position of the stateless Rohingya. For months tensions have been building between Bangladeshi authorities and those seeking refugee status with attempts being made by Bangladesh to send the Rohingya refugees back to the regime they escaped. Universally, refugees are often accused of spreading disease and in ever frightening pandemic conditions the likelihood of the local population and authorities growing more hostile to the Rohingya is increasing. It will be unsurprising if ethnic discrimination toward the Rohingya develops rapidly within Bangladesh, particularly the Cox’s Bazar area in which the camp is located. Furthermore, issues surrounding the availability of aid and healthcare will also become intensified. With the virus spreading through the camp more healthcare infrastructure will be needed, but this will be difficult to acquire with travel restrictions limiting the efforts of aid agencies to supply personnel and hospital equipment. In addition, the study completed by John Hopkins University goes on to suggest it is likely countries facing the overwhelming of hospitals by Covid-19 patients, may limit clinic use to nationals only, especially in areas with high concentrations of refugees and undocumented migrants.

Whilst, the issues of global refugee discrimination and healthcare availability within camps is not new, the coronavirus presence in Kutupalong exemplifies the threat multiplying effect of any natural disaster on the globally undocumented and persecuted. Whilst the next few months will provide the reality that has been projected for the fate of the Rohingya in Bangladesh, the exposition of the fundamental challenges faced in protecting globally displaced persons should act as a call to action for the UN and global governments to better utilise their resources to protect the globally subjugated, not only in situ within refugee camps but in concentrated efforts to draw attention towards and action against regimes perpetuating these humanitarian crimes.