BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON MUSLIM COMMUNITIES

FROM RAKHINE: PUSH IN TO BANGLADESH

Introduction
MCFRs are one of the distressed ethnic communities suffering identity crisis in their country
and persecuted, therefore leaving there country in search of better life. Right after her
independence in 1971, Bangladesh has started experiencing the constant refugee flow of
Muslim MCFR from Myanmar because of the fear of religious as well as ethnic persecution.
The recent outbreak of riot and violation of human rights to the MCFRs attracted the
attention of the world community towards this issue. Being the obvious and closest
neighborhood and the first destination to the distressed MCFRs, Bangladesh is facing the
obligations to take the uneven load of such discripencies.

Background

The MCFR (called as the MCFR) are an ethnic Muslim minority group living primarily in
Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. The MCFR trace their origins in this region since fifteenth
century when thousands of Muslims came to the former Arakan Kingdom. Since
independence in 1948, successive governments in Burma renamed Myanmar in 1989, have
refuted the MCFR’s historical claims and denied the group recognition as one of the
country’s 135 ethnic groups. The Myanmar government refuses to grant the MCFR
citizenship status, and as a result the vast majority of the group’s members have no legal
documentation, despite the fact that many MCFR have resided in Myanmar for centuries.
Recently in October 2016 a series of attacks on security posts along the Myanmar-
Bangladesh border aggravated ethnic violence in Rakhine state.

The Cause of Flight of MCFRs from Myanmar.

The Muslim MCFR has been fleeing from Myanmar by the thousands. Since the MCFR are
considered to be illegal Bengali immigrants and were denied recognition as a religion by the
government of Myanmar, the dominant group, the Rakhine, rejects the label “MCFR” and
have started to persecute the MCFR. The 1982 Citizenship Law denies the MCFR Muslims
citizenship despite the people living there for generations. The MCFR are fleeing Myanmar
because of the restrictions and policies placed by the government. The restrictions include:
“marriage, family planning, employment, education, religious choice, and freedom of
movement” and they are facing discrimination because of their ethnic heritage. The people
in Myanmar are also facing wide spread poverty, with more than 78 percent of the families
living below the poverty line. With most of the families living below the poverty line,
tensions between the MCFR and the other religious groups have exploded into conflict. The
Violence further broke out in 2012, when a group of MCFR men were accused of raping and
killing a Buddhist woman.

Recent follow-up and reaction

As said, in recent past, sheer violence broke out in 2012, when a group of Rohingya men
were accused of raping and killing a Buddhist woman. Groups of Buddhist nationalists
burned Rohingya homes and killed more than 280 people, displacing tens of thousands of
people since 2012. The region’s displaced population has been forced to take shelter in
squalid refugee camps. More than 120,000 Muslims, predominantly Rohingya, are still
housed in more than forty internment camps, according to regional rights organization
Fortify Rights. After the series attacks on security posts along the Myanmar-Bangladesh
border in October 2016, ethnic violence in Rakhine state again surfaced. Local government
and authorities blamed Rohingya militants for the attacks, prompting an inflow of military
and police forces to support a manhunt for those responsible and to tighten security. Dozens
of people were killed in raids, tens of thousands displaced internally, and at least sixty-five
thousand crossed into Bangladesh between October 2016 and early January 2017

Conclusion

Bangladesh can go for some bilateral or multilateral treaties with its neighbor countries as
well as other countries of Asia for dealing about the refugee influx. And finally, Bangladesh
will have to convince the international community to put pressure on Myanmar to resolve
the MCFR refugee problem that Bangladesh has been carrying for the last 20 years without
any foreseeable economic and social benefits whatsoever.