President Barack Obama has urged Myanmar to end discrimination against its Rohingya Muslims if it wants to succeed in its transition to a democracy. Speaking to a group of young Asians invited to the White House, Obama said the US focused to make sure that the Rohingya migrants are relocated.
“I think one of the most important things is to put an end to discrimination against people because of their color or what their faith is. And the Rohingya have been discriminated against. And that’s part of the reason they’re fleeing,” said Obama.
Obamas statement comes after s thousands of Rohingyas are adrift in the Southeast Asia seas seeking protection and shelter and with most countries in the region rejecting their request. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been living in displacement camps since 2012 when deadly communal violence tore through the western state of Rakhine.
When asked what he would have done if he were a Rohingya, the President replied, “I think if I were a Rohingya, I would want to stay where I was born. But I’d want to make sure that my government was protecting me and that people were treating me fairly,” he added.
“And that’s why it’s so important, I think, as part of the democratic transition, to take very seriously this issue of how the Rohingya are treated.”
More than 4,500 Rohingyas have been rescued from Southeast Asian since early May. Several thousand more are believed to be stranded at sea after human smugglers were forced to abandon their boats following a crackdown on human smuggling.
Most of the boat people are Rohingya Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar denying them citizenship, and confined more than 100,000 to camps. There are more than 1 million Rohingya are living in Myanmar.
Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as a separate ethnic minority, instead calling them “Bengalis”. It insists they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
As a result they face restrictions on movement and on access to jobs and services, prompting thousands each year to brave the dangerous sea journey south towards Malaysia and Indonesia. According to the UN refugee agency in the past three years, more than 120,000 Rohingyas have boarded ships to flee abroad.