The Issue In Depth
Everything you need to know
Who are the Rohingya?
The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority of about 1.1 million living mostly in Rakhine state, west Myanmar, on the border with Bangladesh.
Though they have lived in Myanmar for generations, the Myanmar Government insists that all Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. It refuses to recognise them as citizens, effectively rendering the majority of them stateless.
Ongoing tensions
In 2012 tensions between the Rohingya people and the majority Rakhine population – who are predominantly Buddhist – erupted into rioting, driving tens of thousands of mainly Rohingya people from their homes and into squalid displacement camps. Those living in the camps are confined there and segregated from other communities.
In October 2016, following lethal attacks on police outposts by armed Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, the Myanmar army launched a military crackdown targeting the community as a whole. Amnesty International has documented wide-ranging human rights violations against the Rohingya, including unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, the rape and sexual assault of women and girls and the burning of more than 1,200 buildings, including schools and mosques. At the time, Amnesty International concluded that these actions may amount to crimes against humanity.
Latest round of violence
The most recent wave of violence against the Rohingya people occurred in August 2017. The Myanmar military responded to attacks by a Rohingya armed group by unleashing a wave of violence against ordinary men, women and children.
Thousands of Rohingya people have died or lost their homes in a systemic campaign of ethnic cleansing. A UN report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Mynamar released in August 2018 stated that military leaders in the country must face charges of genocide.
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