Understanding the rohingya crisis :

Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun

doi:10.36609/bjpa.v29i2.214

Abstract

The current crisis in Myanmar concerning the Rohingya people has resulted in a huge number of stateless refugees. An answer to the citizenship of these refugees is urgently required. This study summarizes the comparative analysis of the existing citizenship framework of Myanmar with the older version. After briefly reviewing earlier legal framework Citizenship Law of the Union 1948 concomitant to the 1947 Constitution of Burma, the study analyzes the changes made in Citizenship Law of Burma 1982 concomitant to the 1974 Constitution. Major results from the empirical studies conducted earlier suggest that there exist three types of citizenship in Myanmar while this study has found that there are four types of citizenship prevails in Myanmar. The study also has come out with the finding that there exists very little scope for Myanmar government to legalize a large number of Rohingya populations unless the Law is revised first. Therefore, the government should focus on the revision of the law if it really wants to prove its good intention for a sustainable solution.

Highlights

Rohingya, the Muslim minority of the northern part of Rakhine State of Myanmar, has become the subject of “the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis” (UNHCR 2017) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his speech before world capitalsat United Nations, termed the situation as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” (United Nation Human Right 2017) causing more than 700,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh
Rohingyas were not recognized in official ethnic groups nor in nationals in the definition prescribed by Citizenship Law
On 23 November 2017, the Myanmar Government has entered into an agreement, which will be executed based on a mutually agreed process with Bangladesh, to return the displaced Myanmar residents

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The Muslim minority of the northern part of Rakhine State of Myanmar, has become the subject of “the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis” (UNHCR 2017) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his speech before world capitalsat United Nations, termed the situation as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” (United Nation Human Right 2017) causing more than 700,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh. The Rakhine scholars oppose these facts by presenting Rohingya Muslims as aftermath migrants of the Arakan annexation by the British in 1824 and illegal migrants afterward (Pugh 2013) They do not recognize the name ‘Rohingya’; rather term them as ‘Bengalis’ indicating that these people are illegal intruders from Bangladesh. Rohingyas have increasingly become targets of military campaigns, citizenship revocation, and subsequent rights violation as well as animosity of mainstream Buddhists which altogether gradually led them to be acutely discriminated, persecuted, disenfranchised stateless people with bottomless grievances This systematic denial of their rights along with violent atrocities is linked with the massive exodus of Rohingya into Bangladesh in 1978, 199192, 2012 and 2017 (Dapice, Rakhine State: Dangers and Opportunities 2017). The study compares the existing laws in Myanmar with its former laws to examine how and which sections of the existing Burma Citizenship Law (1982) cause failure in bringing a sustainable solution in the country

METHODOLOGY

Associate Naturalized Citizenship citizenship

Constitutional Provisions

Types of

Citizenship by birth

Associate Citizenship

Naturalized Citizenship

Naturalization Process

Decisionmaking Procedures

CONCLUSION

Findings

Change And The Emergence Of Buddhist Religious Change And The