On World Refugee Day 2020 — Rohingyas

One of many current global refugee crises is that of the Rohingyas. A Muslim group long resident in Myanmar, many Rohingyas have been displaced as refugees to South Asia (and other regions), most especially Bangladesh and India. Rohingyas have also experienced lack of welcome in South Asian countries. While often viewed in news reports as a recent spate of Buddhist-Muslim ethnic violence, starting in 2015, scholarly studies have traced violent events back several centuries. For an overview within Myanmar (Burma), Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ conflict (Anthony Ware, Costas Laoutides) provides historical background and suggests some solutions within a context analysis theoretical framework. For historical context within South Asia (Bangladesh and India), The Rohingya in South Asia: people without a state (Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Ranabir Samaddar) discusses how the Rohingya have become stateless refugees in multiple countries. For a relatively recent (2018) video news report, CNN’s Witness to injustice provides an overview. Columbia users also have access to Sittwe, a documentary video about the relationship between two teenage refugees, a Rohingya Muslim girl and a Buddhist boy.

The Columbia Human Rights Web Archive (an initiative of the Centre for Human Rights Documentation & Research) can be searched for archived resources on the Rohingya crisis. For recent news articles and reports, the EMIS (Emerging Markets Information Service) database (requires Columbia login) provides recent news.

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