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MUNMILAN 2016
Background Paper on
The Question of Mapping out a Unified International
Response to Migration in Southeast Asia
Written by Diego Arteche
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Introduction to Southeast
Asia:
The subregion of
Southeast Asia consists of
the countries that are found
south of China, east of
India, west of Papua New
Guinea and North of
Australia. This subregion is
divided into two geographic
regions. The Maritime
Southeast Asia, which
includes the countries of:
Brunei, East Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Timor-Leste.
This region is also known
as the Malay Archipelago,
which was named after the 19th century European concept of the malay race.
The other geographic region is called the mainland Southeast Asia, which is
also known to be called Indochina. The Indochinese peninsula includes the
countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and West Malaysia
(Map).
Overview of the issue:
Researches have concluded that over half of the world's population lives
in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the United Nations Department of
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Economic and Social Affairs, known as UNDESA, Southeast Asia hosts 53
million out of the world's 191 million migrants. Meaning that the subregion
hosts 27.8% of the world's migrants (Castles).
This issue has been going on for almost five decades now and was first
identified in the 1970s-1980s. Back then, poor asian families located in the
region would try to arrive into More Economically Developed Countries also
called MEDCs; such as Australia, the United States, and countries of the Middle
East; where they would dream of obtaining jobs, housing, and education for
their children. However the migrant situation of Southeast Asia, which was
already in bad shape, suffered a bigger increase of migrants due to the problem
of the Rohingya citizen persecution issue. A forgotten, stateless minority that
has been named by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities
in the world (Castles) and (Tharoor).
Rohingya people have been looking to
escape the violence and persecution of the
government of Myanmar. This big problem is
due to the fact that the Rohingya people are
the descendants of the muslims immigrants
of India which includes present day
Bangladesh and Chinese-Muslim citizens
from the Yunnan province. The main religion
in Myanmar is Buddhism, and most antirohingya marches are led by very strict
nationalist Buddhist monks who claim that
the Rohingya are Bengali illegal immigrants,
even though many of this minority families
have been living in Burmese soil for years
(Tharoor) and (Persecution).
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The government and many buddhist citizens believe that the Rohingya
people are interlopers of Burma and do not deserve the citizenship rights of
their nation. In 2009, Burma€s consul in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, directed a
letter to local chinese newspapers in which he addressed the issue of the
Rohingya people living the country in crowded old boats and hoped to dissuade
the sympathy toward this small minority. In the letter Ye Myint Aung, revealed
the shocking racism of the government towards this minority and described
them in the following way: “The Rohingya are as ugly as ogres and do not share
the fair and soft skin of other Burmese ethnic groups.” He concluded the letter
by stating that "Rohingya are neither Myanmar people nor Myanmar’s ethnic
group" (Tharoor).
Help provided to solve the issue of the
Southeast Asian migration regionally:
The Rohingya people either leave
Burma by boat a service provided by illegal
human traffickers and go for weeks
stranded in the dangerous sea of Southeast
Asia, or try to leave Burma by foot and
attempt to make it to Bangladesh or
Thailand€s border without getting beaten by
Burma's most nationalist citizens. The most
common option used is to leave by boat,
however countries around the area have had
so many migrants that decided to close their
borders to the Rohingya. These people go
from country to country begging for asylum
and if rejected they try again and again in
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other places (Drennan) and (The Most Persecuted).
In the Kuala Lumpur Conference of May 2015; Malaysia, Indonesia, and
Thailand, the three countries that have the largest numbers of Rohingya
migrants, due to the easy access to the Andaman Sea, debated this issue, since
they were pressured by many organizations such as the U.N to find a solution
to the problem caused by their neighboring country of Myanmar. Finally,
Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to offer temporary relief and shelter to 7000
Rohingyas living on boats in the Andaman Sea until the international
community decides to provide help with the issue. Myanmar, which is the
starting point for the majority of the illegal migrants of Southeast Asia, has been
trying to stop all of those illegal departures by increasing the security of their
ports; however, boats full of Rohingya migrants keep appearing and it seems as
if the government was not really trying to solve their issue (Drennan), (Di
Gaetano), and (The Most Persecuted).
Countries around the area are in desperate need of a solution since
refugees keep appearing on their shores and they cannot hold any more in their
countries. The Malaysian deputy home minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar said on an
interview about the issue “What do you expect us to do? We have been very
nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely
but they cannot be flooding our shores like this. We have to send the right
message that they are not welcome here” (Doherty).
Thailand's prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha also shared a piece of his
mind when his government did not had the resources to host all of the migrants
entering his country. “If we take them all in, then anyone who wants to come
will come freely. I am asking if Thailand will be able to take care of them all.
Where will the budget come from? No one wants them. Everyone wants a
transit country like us to take responsibility. Is it fair?” (Doherty).
Past Solutions:
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The United Nations has been calling on the Myanmarese government to
finally grant the Rohingya people their full citizens rights and passed a
resolution on the General Assembly of December 2014 to solve this problem.
This resolution urges Myanmar to allow equal access to full citizenship for the
Rohingya minority and to allow self-identification of the Rohingya people. The
resolution hopes that it will equal access to the services of the country.
This passed resolution was received with hostility by the Burmese people,
who had angry anti-Rohingya marches to prevent this minority from voting on a
possible upcoming referendum to give citizenship rights to this minority
(Presse).
Here you can see an anti-Rohingya march taking place in Myanmar.
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Possible Solutions:
The chair comes from Spain so his possible solution for this issue will be
taking a very south-western european approach to the matter. The problem with
this is crisis is that the citizens do not want to recognize the Rohingya so
therefore every attempt the UN does to influence the government of Myanmar
into striking down laws against this minority ends in protests of the people that
believe the Rohingya are not part of Myanmar's society.
In order to end with this crisis, we should create a UN program dedicated
to create and teach workshops to the population of Myanmar about the
Rohingya culture and roots. It should also include the struggle of the Rohingya
people nowadays and how much they are struggling.
After the people of Myanmar open their minds to the Rohingya minority,
the Myanmar government should then give official citizenship and full rights to
all Rohingyas who currently live in Myanmar, have been living there for most
of their life or that were born there. After Myanmar grants citizenship, I believe
that many of the illegal migrants that left Burma will come back to their native
country and when they return back to their homeland all the countries that
hosted them will be relieved with decrease of illegal migrants
To all of the migrants who left Myanmar and are currently living in
Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia or India, the UN should invest
money on the camps built in those nations to host the Rohingya. Most of them
are in a very rough condition and if the UN could intervene the Rohingya
people would finally be able to get educated, have housing, water, and food. If
the camps provide education for the people, young men and women will be able
to get out of the camp and find jobs so that they can support their family and
eventually buy a house for themselves.
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Works Cited
Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller. "Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region."
Migrationpolicy.org. N.p., 10 July 2009. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Di Gaetano, Silvia. "How to Solve Southeast Asia's Refugee Crisis." The
Diplomat. N.p., 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Doherty, Ben. "Solving the Refugee Crisis Begins by Changing the Way We
See Them | Ben Doherty." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media,
01 June 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Drennan, Justine. "The Solution to Southeast Asia's Migrant Crisis That Is No
Solution At All." Foreign Policy The Solution to Southeast Asia’s
Migrant Crisis That Is No Solution At All Comments. N.p., 20 May
2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
"Map of Southeast Asia Region." Map of South-East Asia. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
"The Most Persecuted People on Earth?" The Economist. The
Economist Newspaper, 13 June 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
"Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22
Feb. 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Presse, Agence France. "UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution Urging
Myanmar to Grant Citizenship to Muslim Rohingya." The Indian
Express. N.p., 30 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Tharoor, Ishaan. "Why Does This Buddhist-majority Nation Hate These
Muslims so Much?" Washington Post. The Washington Post, 13 Feb.
2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.