2015 will be remembered as the year of mass migration. This year, the world has endured an unprecedented flood of haunting images. The one image we have all seen over and over again is of overcrowded boats packed with desperate people in dire need of supplies. Sometimes they are Syrians, sometimes Iraqis, sometimes Africans. Among the distraught faces are also a number of people who are stateless.
In May this year, the world’s short-lived attention turned towards the thousands of migrants stranded in boats across the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The boats were carrying Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority, fleeing from the Burmese state of Rakhine and Bangladesh. Denied citizenship and basic rights in Myanmar, the Rohingyas have been subjected to persecution in their own homeland. According to UN estimates, 94,000 people departed by sea from Bangladesh or Myanmar since 2014, including 31.000 people in the first half of 2015. Over 1,100 migrants have died on sea since 2014.
The boats that managed to find their way to shore were turned away and forced to return to sea. Faced with substantial international pressure, the governments of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia subsequently reconsidered their actions and promised aid, announcing that temporary shelter would be provided on the condition that the refugees were resettled by the international community within a year. (Courtesy of openDemocracy)
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