Syrian refugee crisis mirrored on India’s eastern shores

 

In an eerie reminder of what happened to Syrian refugee kid Aylan Kurdi, here you see in the picture 16-month-old Mohammed Shohayet who washed up dead on the banks of the river Naf on Bangladesh- Myanmar border. He is being called the Rohingya Alyan Kurdi.

 

Myanmar has been going through a huge turmoil and while the event was largely restricted to the eastern side of the world, now with this defining tragic death, the fate of Rohingyas have become a topic of global attention.

 

An ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugee breaks down during a gathering in Kuala Lumpur on December 4, 2016 against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar./ AFP / Manan Vatsyana 

 

This little kid's family was trying to flee the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine province, when their boat sank, resulting in the little boy's death.

 

 

Rohingya Muslims are considered to be in a state of disagreement with the Myanmar establishment. In the Rakhine province the situation has always been tense following episodic ethnic clashes between the Rohingya Muslims and the indigenous Buddhists in the last three years.

 

The Muslims have alleged and spoken of widespread persecution to them. In fact, fearing persecution there have been a lot of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar and have even sought refuge in India.

 

WATCH:
 

 

 

But Myanmar’s neighbours have been wary of accepting these refugees. Bangladesh has denied to accept them as “Bengalis” and India is facing a new threat on its Eastern borders because of the foreign help being taken by the militants in Myanmar. The security agencies have warned the Centre that Pakistan's Inter State Intelligence may try "to exploit Rohingyas to support jihad". 

 

Rakhine borders Bangladesh and India and this skirmish and instability in India's eastern border has led to trouble for our country as well. In recent times the persecuted minority has found themselves fleeing to Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

 

DECEMBER 23: Members of Bangladesh Islami Oikkyo jote attend in a special prayer after a demonstration against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s volatile Rakhine state, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo by Sk Hasan Ali)

 

For the Rohingyas it has been a problem of religion, identity and country. They have been defined as stateless Bengalis, considered to have come from India back in 1430s. Though the Rohingyas consider themselves as an ethnic minority of Burma, they are not enlisted among the 135 indigenous ethnic minorities of the country and the Burmese Nationality Law, 1982 forbids them from Burmese citizenship. During the British rule many Rohingya Muslims came over to Bangladesh and India and this has been a matter of contention in  Burma and hence they are not trusted.