Will Myanmar’s Rohingya finally become citizens in their own country?

Although statelessness is at the root of many of the Rohingya’s problems, many of them are refusing to participate in the programme. This is likely due to decades of distrust of successive governments, which extends even to the latest one led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.

About 120,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims still live in squalid camps where they were moved four years ago after being driven from their homes by mobs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. The rest of the approximately 800,000 Rohingya who remain in their villages are subject to stringent movement restrictions and have little access to employment, healthcare or education.

In desperation, more than 140,000 Rohingya have fled by boat since 2012 according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Many of those have ended up in the hands of human traffickers. That often-deadly exodus is one main reason the US downgraded Myanmar to tier three on its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, putting the fledgling democracy in the worst category. (Courtesy of irinnews.org)