Unless reconciliation efforts involve people at the grassroots, persecution of ethnic Rohingya will not stop. Indonesian should offer support for dialogue between communities in Myanmar.
A member of Border Guard Bangladesh stands guard on a watchtower near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to prevent Rohingya refugees from illegal border crossing.
Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Abuses on Rohingyas have reached new height but neither Myanmar nor neighbouring Bangladesh are taking responsibilities to grant basic human rights to this population.
The Rohingya are one the of the world’s most-persecuted ethnic minorities.
Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Talks among ASEAN leaders are often limited to political and economic issues, pushing problems with deep social and cultural roots like the persecution of ethnic Rohingya to the margins.
Diplomats and officials from 17 countries met in Bangkok in May 2015 to discuss how to deal with the thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees.
AAP/Diego Azubel
The region is showing signs it is determined to ensure similar mass displacement crises such as that which took place in the Andaman Sea in 2015 are avoided.
Both the Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine broadly agree that peace can be achieved in Rakhine State.
Author provided
We recently undertook extensive fieldwork in Myanmar to find out what could help resolve the underlying issues that drive the conflict between the Muslim Rohingya and the majority Buddhist Rakhine.
A Rohingya camp outside Sittwe, Rakhine state, Burma.
Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
As Myanmar nears a historic election, a long-embattled minority is still struggling to escape lethal violence and trafficking.
Australia should not wait until bodies are washed up on foreign beaches before it is spurred to action on addressing refugee flows.
Reuters/Dimitris Michalakis
Australia should not reserve its help for those fleeing conflict in distant wars. Its first duty should be to those who face death and persecution in its own region.
Burmese Buddhist monks protest against an influx of Rohingya migrants by boat.
EPA/Nyunt Win
Allegations that people smugglers were paid by Australian officials to return to Indonesia should not distract from the search to find a workable solution to the region’s asylum seeker problem.
Rohinga people face triple discrimination.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
ASEAN stood on the sidelines as thousands of refugees were stranded at sea, but it should apply its policy of constructive engagement to ending the persecution that drives Rohingya people out of Myanmar.
Myanmar has carried out discriminatory policies against the Rohingya for decades.
Nyunt Win/AAP
Despite international pressure, Myanmar’s government intends to continue the decades-long program of discriminatory policies against the Rohingya that denies them their human rights.
Governments and international organisations should find an effective solution for the Rohingya refugee crisis.
EPA/STR
Representatives meeting to discuss South-East Asia’s migrant crisis may learn from the previous refugee crisis that hit the region during the Indochina war.
These Rohingya women and children, rescued by fishermen in Aceh, are among thousands in need of resettlement.
EPA
A summit in Bangkok is discussing the fate of thousands of people who were stranded at sea. Australia is represented but refuses to resettle any refugees, casting doubt on its commitment to a regional solution.
A boat carrying 450 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh is inspected by Thai Navy officers in the Andaman Sea.
EPA/Royal Thai Navy
The political rhetoric would suggest that asylum seekers are deserving and economic migrants are undeserving. Yet their motivations overlap and are complex – forced migrants do not fit easily into one category.
Under enormous pressure, countries in south east Asia are at last offering help to thousands of stranded migrants – but their gesture is far less meaningful than it seems.
Rohingya refugees from Myanmar travelled in this fishing boat to Sumatra, Indonesia, with officials announcing some 2000 people were rounded up or rescued after arriving in Malaysia and Indonesia over the weekend.
EPA
Australia may have ‘stopped the boats’ but the tragedy of people drowning at sea continues to our north and is getting worse. A regional solution to the refugee crisis is urgently needed.