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Myanmar Refugee Crisis Has Worsened

myanmar
This Tuesday the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that refugees fleeing the western Rakhine state in Myanmar, also known as Burma, are suffering increasing instances of abuse. This is an ongoing humanitarian issue as violence in the Rakhine state began almost exactly two years ago when clashes and riots between the Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims erupted. The roots of this crisis come from the fact that the Rohingya Muslims are a linguistic and religious minority who the Rakhine Buddhists have long resented.

Regardless of the long-standing tensions between these two groups, the initial cause of the riots happened in May of 2012 when a Muslim woman was raped and murdered. Hundreds of people have since died and thousands have been displaced. Many of those affected are innocent women and children.

Authorities are considered to have exacerbated the problem by not acting quickly enough to stop the violence. Few people have been prosecuted and some of the local police even partake in the riots. Human Rights Watch called on the Myanmar government to take action but they have denied any wrongdoing.

This crisis has come into the news again because of the worsening conditions of refugees. Mostly Rohingya women and children, these refugees are fleeing to places such as Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia. A spokesperson for UNHCR said that “more than 86,000 people have left on boats since June 2012. This includes more than 16,000 people in the second half of 2012, some 55,000 in 2013 and nearly 15,000 from January to April this year.” These boats are overcrowded and there is little access to food or water. Sadly, at least 730 people have died trying to make this journey.

The problems continue once these refugees reach land. In Thailand and Malaysia, reports of smuggling have begun to emerge. The smugglers take the refugees to camps where they are forced to live in squalor and minimal space until their families can pay the ransom for their release. The refugees suffer from malnutrition and are often beaten; some even die.

Luckily, Thai authorities are working with UNHCR to remove these smuggler camps and to offer services to the refugees. This means rehabilitation centers that offer educational services and basic community activities.

Problems still persist though as the Thai government has refused to sign the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention. This convention regulates the treatment of asylum seekers. In 2005 Thailand stopped registering refugees in an attempt to slow their arrival. However, this has not stopped the flow of refugees from Myanmar, causing many to be trapped in these refugee camps.

If the violence in Myanmar continues, as it has been for two years, the refugees will continue to leave their homes hoping to find safety elsewhere. What they find instead are smuggling camps and refugee camps as they wait with no legal status in either their home country or the country where they are trying to seek refuge. The UNHCR is trying to implement potential programs to help the refugee camps, but Myanmar as well as Thai and Malaysian governments need to work with this intergovernmental organization to to resolve this humanitarian crisis.

– Eleni Marino

Sources: Aljazeera, BBC News, UNHCR
Photo: Taipei Times

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Tzu Chi: Compassionate Relief

The Tzu Chi Foundation is a globally immersed Chinese Buddhist humanitarian organization that is originated and based in Taiwan. It was founded in 1999 by the Buddhist nun Cheng Yen and is a volunteer organization that provides aid to roughly 70 nations worldwide.

The foundation is present in all of the world’s five major continents and maintains offices in 47 different countries.

The organization’s website clearly delineates its goals and mission. The group’s four expressed goals are referred to as its “Four Major Missions” of charity, medical help and attention, education and humanity. It also focuses on four other venues: bone marrow donation efforts, environmental considerations, community volunteering and international relief.

Their four goals combine with these considerations to form “Tzu Chi’s Eight Footprints.”

Tzu Chi maintains consultative relations with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its members are often referred to as “blue angels” due to their signature blue uniforms. The group has built numerous villages, nursing homes, schools and hospitals across the world. It also maintains the Tzu Chi International Medical Association, which includes professional doctors who travel in times of international disaster to provide medical relief to victims.

The group also acted closer to home than many U.S. citizens may know or think. After Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York and New Jersey, Tzu Chi members personally dispersed $10 million total in $300 and $600 Visa credit gift cards to victims in the area.

Its efforts abroad are plentiful and very personalized, illustrating an admirable method of involved humanitarianism. For example, after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China, Tzu Chi members brought blankets, nourishment and medical aid to the disaster-stricken area. The group also focuses on very impoverished areas in China and elsewhere, distributing rice, oil, blankets, clothes and medical services to those in need.

The organization ignores ethnic, religious, national or racial boundaries or restrictions, but instead spreads Buddhist principles of morality, kindness, humanism and selflessness. Furthermore, they provide both instant and long-term infrastructural solutions to community problems throughout the world.

Tzu Chi is making a difference one blue angel at a time.

– Arielle Swett

Sources: Tzu Chi, The Register