Bleak Ramadan for Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, in danger of further abuses by the military, analysts warn
- The persecuted community are at risk of ‘genocidal actions’ as the junta takes on ethnic armed groups
- Meanwhile, Rohingya in Bangladeshi refugee camps are living in fear of fires and facing an uncertain future
Ronan Lee, a visiting scholar with the International State Crime Initiative – a community working to expose, document and resist state crime – said around 140,000 Rohingyas had been confined to concentration camps within the country’s western Rakhine state, where they have been forced to live since 2012.
“The circumstances for Rohingya living in Myanmar continue to be grim,” said Lee, who is also the author of Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide: Identity, History and Hate Speech.
He said those outside the camps had to “endure an apartheid system” with tight restrictions on their ability to travel even to adjacent villages, and had limited access to education, health care and work opportunities.
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At least 15 dead, 400 missing, 50,000 displaced after fire in Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh
Described by the UN as Myanmar’s most persecuted ethnic group, the Rohingya people have faced discrimination and repression since the country’s independence in 1948.