Why Myanmar is NOT TO BLAME for the migrant crisis

However, while it is true that some originate from Myanmar, the number of migrants fleeing this country is nowhere near as high as most observers claim.

The reality is that most of these migrants come from Bangladesh, something which both that country and Indonesia have acknowledged. 

So why is Myanmar being blamed? 

The answer lies in political manoeuvring among member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the international community.

Poverty, population density and a refugee crisis are the main factors driving mass migration from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has a much larger population (158 million) than Myanmar (51 million) and ranks as the 12th most densely populated country in the world. More sparsely populated Myanmar ranks 125th.

Bangladesh’s poverty rate was 43.3 per cent in 2010, while wealthier Myanmar’s was just 26 per cent, according to World Bank figures.

Along with poverty, Bangladesh has an enormous number of refugees – a legacy of the million or so people who fled their homes during the 1971 war of independence with West Pakistan, along with those periodically made homeless by natural disasters. The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates there were over 431,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Bangladesh as of January this year. 

Many Bangladeshi migrants first cross into Myanmar then continue their journey to Malaysia through Thailand. Those stranded in Southeast Asian seas are trying to get to Malaysia or Indonesia, the majority of whose population share their Muslim religion.

Myanmar is merely on their route and, like other transit countries, is troubled by the penetration.

However, the response to the migrant crisis from the international community, including Asean member states, has been to claim that almost all the boat people are from Myanmar, without investigating the matter. They use the term “Rohingya” to describe the migrants, a term not recognised by Myanmar authorities.

The boat people have not appeared suddenly out of nowhere in the waters of Southeast Asia. The UNHCR estimates that 63,000 sought to migrate illegally across Southeast Asia’s seas in 2014, up from 58,000 the year before, adding that most were from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Human traffickers mainly operate from the Thailand-Malaysia border area where they have established illegal camps. In the last two months, a Thai crackdown on trafficking led to the discovery of over 30 mass graves and hundreds of corpses in abandoned camps in the area. Unable to land their cargo, the traffickers abandoned boats full of people in the Bay of Bengal. More than 7,000 were stranded in early May and dozens are known to have perished at sea.

Traffickers charge from $1,600 to $2,400 (Bt54,000 to Bt81,000) for the trip to Malaysia through south Thailand. The business is lucrative, netting total profits of $250 million between 2012 and 2014, the UNHCR estimates. 

 

Why Myanmar is being blamed

With Muslim-majority Malaysia chairing Asean this year, Rohingya organisations have been pushing Myanmar to give the Rohingya citizenship. 

The foreign ministers of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia met in Malaysia in the last week of May followed by a special meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, in Bangkok on May 29. The unspoken message from both these meetings was that Myanmar was the source of the crisis. Meanwhile, Norway hosted the Oslo Conference to “end Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingyas”. Myanmar’s foreign ministry responded by issuing a statement rejecting the one-sided remarks made at the Oslo Conference. 

Ading to the pressure on Myanmar is Malaysia’s Syed Albar, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s special envoy on Myanmar, who is focused on cooperating with regional NGOs and authorities to pressure Nay Pyi Taw to stop violating the rights of the Rohingya, recognise them as full-fledged citizens, and allow all refugees to return home. The OIC has also assisted in founding the Arakan Rohingya Union, which represents the Rohingya worldwide at forums in seeking the support of the international community for their cause.

International news agencies also have a one-sided view of the issue and use the same carrot-and-stick approach as Western leaders. Such an approach might be useful for promoting democracy and human rights, but not for Southeast Asia’s migrant crisis. It seems like the UN and Western countries are distracting attention from Myanmar’s upcoming election – a 25-year landmark for democracy here – by placing emphasis on the Rohingya issue. If they continue to do so, they will become the enemies of Myanmar, instead of friends working in support of democracy. 

The US government holds double standards towards Myanmar and Bangladesh. Having turned its attention away from India, which is trying to forge friendly relations with China, and chilled its ties with Pakistan, the US is focusing more on Bangladesh. Since 1972, the US has been a major development partner for Bangladesh, pumping billions of dollars in aid to the country and making large investments in gas production through US companies such as Chevron and Conoco Philips. 

US interests are thus bound more closely to Bangladesh than to Myanmar. It is clear why Washington is laying most of the blame on Myanmar, not Bangladesh, over the issue of the Rohingya. 

 

Rohingya: A troubled history 

The Rohingya are not on Myanmar’s official list of indigenous ethnic groups, but are deemed to have illegally entered from Bangladesh in colonial days. As their numbers grew, they demanded a separate Muslim state of their own. 

During the U Nu administration of the 1950s, a government party desperate for votes allowed aliens from Bangladesh to enter and handed them citizenship cards to vote in the ’56 election. 

By the 1960s, the number of so-called Rohingya in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Yathedaung had reached nearly 500,000. Their penetration spread across the Rakhine state.

The UN Refugee Agency was the first to voice concerns over the issue, claiming that over 250,000 had fled Myanmar. Some international media alleged that nearly 100,000 had been killed. 

In 1978 around 190,000 were invited back into Myanmar, reversing the flow. But illegal migrants from Bangladesh have also spread across Rakhine state, and all were given temporary citizenship (white cards) to vote in the 1990 election, the 2008 constitutional referendum and the 2010 election. This prompted them to demand full citizenship rights. 

Myanmar currently has 797,504 white card holders, 666,381 in Rakhine state alone. 

 

How to solve the problem 

Knowing that the Rohingya are internationally recognised as a persecuted people, illegal migrants fleeing Bangladesh are claiming to be Rohingya from Myanmar in expectation of receiving special treatment.

The problem of illegal migrants from Bangladesh does not concern Myanmar ethnicity. It is a problem of immigration. Aung San Suu Kyi said in 2012 that it was a problem of border security.

To solve the problem we must first carry out citizenship scrutiny. About half of the 666,381 white-card holders in Rakhine state could indeed be citizens. More than half of the remaining number could also be granted citizenship. 

But the tradition of using migrants to swing elections has exacerbated ethnic tensions over the decades and must not be allowed to continue. Let those who do not meet the citizenship requirements remain in refugee camps. They will continue to receive aid from the UN Refugee Agency and international organisations. 

Then, the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh must be secured and corruption among officials there stamped out.

Successive Myanmar governments have failed to tackle the Rohingya issue, and Myanmar will continue to be the object of blame unless this changes.