The Burmese government asserted that the Rohingya ethnic group living in northwestern Burma has no claim to citizenship rights. At a press conference this week Myanmar Immigration Minister Thein Htay claimed that Rohingyas are not included among our more than 130 ethnic races.
Rohingya Muslims are left vulnerable to persecution, discrimination and abuse since 1982 as the Burmese government classified an estimated 750,000 Rohingyas living in its western Rakhine State as stateless Bengali Muslims from neighbouring Bangladesh. The deep hostility existing at the highest level of the government and military toward the Rohingyas came to the fore after sectarian violence erupted in June in Rakhine State.
Maintaining that Rohingyas are an unwelcome lot in Burma, Burmese President Thein Sein has held it impossible to accept ‘illegal’ Rohingya, and called for the expulsion of Rohingyas from Burma. He also seeks UN support to provide camps for the Rohingya or help to send them to third countries.
Already nearly 30000 Rohingya are living in UNHCR camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, and recently 20 Rohingya Muslim families have arrived at Hyderabad, India, to seek shelter, after fleeing persecution in Burma.
Meanwhile, the UN human rights envoy for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana is on a fact-finding mission to Burma.