Citizens of nowhere: one million Rohingya still without rights, status or justice

August, 2019, marks the second anniversary of Rohingya refugees fleeing into Bangladesh following a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces. A predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from the Rakhine state of Buddhist Myanmar, the Rohingya have been called the “most persecuted minority in the world”.

Promised their own autonomous state in return for helping Britain during the World War II (which never happened), the Rohingya have a history of being resented by the Burmese/Myanmarese people. More recently, stripped of citizenship under a 1982 law which deemed the Rohingya as Bengali, they now find themselves stateless, as Myanmar and Bangladesh refuse to acknowledge them as citizens.