Who Are the Rohingya?
The first Muslims to settle in Arakan were in the area by the 1400s CE. Many served in the court of the Buddhist King Narameikhla (Min Saw Mun), who ruled Arakan in the 1430s, and who welcomed Muslim advisers and courtiers into his capital. Arakan is on the western border of Burma, near what is now Bangladesh, and the later Arakanese kings modeled themselves after the Mughal emperors, even using Muslim titles for their military and court officials.
In 1785, Buddhist Burmese from the south of the country conquered Arakan. They drove out or executed all of the Muslim Rohingya men they could find; some 35,000 of Arakan's people likely fled into Bengal, then part of the British Raj in India.
As of 1826, the British took control of Arakan after the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26). They encouraged farmers from Bengal to move to the depopulated area of Arakan, both Rohingyas originally from the area and native Bengalis. The sudden influx of immigrants from British India sparked a strong reaction from the mostly-Buddhist Rakhine people living in Arakan at the time, sowing the seeds of ethnic tension that remain to this day.
When World War II broke out, Britain abandoned Arakan in the face of Japanese expansion into Southeast Asia. In the chaos of Britain's withdrawal, both Muslim and Buddhist forces took the opportunity to inflict massacres on one another. Many Rohingya still looked to Britain for protection, and served as spies behind Japanese lines for the Allied Powers. When the Japanese discovered this connection, they embarked on a hideous program of torture, rape and murder against the Rohingyas in Arakan. Tens of thousands of Arakanese Rohingyas once again fled into Bengal.
Between the end of World War II and General Ne Win's coup d'etat in 1962, the Rohingyas advocated for a separate Rohingya nation in Arakan. When the military junta took power in Yangon, however, it cracked down hard on Rohingyas, separatists and non-political people alike. It also denied Burmese citizenship to the Rohingya people, defining them instead as stateless Bengalis.
Since that time, the Rohingya in Myanmar have lived in limbo. In recent years, they have faced increasing persecution and attacks, even in some cases from Buddhist monks. Those who escape out to sea, as thousands have done, face an uncertain fate; the governments of Muslim nations around Southeast Asia including Malaysia and Indonesia have refused to accept them as refugees. Some of those who turn up in Thailand have been victimized by human traffickers, or even set adrift again on the sea by Thai military forces. Australia has adamantly refused to accept any Rohingya on its shores, as well.
In May of 2015, the Philippines pledged to create camps to house 3,000 of the Rohingya boat-people. Working with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the Philippines' government will temporarily shelter refugees and provide for their basic needs, while a more permanent solution is sought. It is a start, but with perhaps as many as 6,000 to 9,000 people adrift on the sea right now, much more needs to be done.
United States House resolution on persecution of the Rohingya people in Burma
Recognizes the initial steps Burma has taken in transitioning from a military dictatorship to a quasi-civilian government, including the conditional release of some political prisoners, and calls for more progress to be made in critical areas of democracy, constitutional reform, and national reconciliation.Calls on the government of Burma to: (1) end persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya people, recognize the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group, and resolve their citizenship status; and (2) ensure respect for human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.Calls on the United States and the international community to put pressure on Burma to end the persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya population and to protect the fundamental rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups in Burma.Calls on the United States to prioritize the removal of state-sanctioned discriminatory policies in its engagement with Burma. To Read more Rohingya people.
Who is a Refugee?
Who is a Refugee?
A refugee is someone who must flee their homeland in order to be safe. They cannot return home, or they are rightly afraid to return home due to violence or persecution. The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted in 1951, defines a refugee as… [A]ny person who: owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. An asylee is someone who faced the same hardship as a refugee but, instead of seeking refuge while outside of their future resettlement country, applied for U.S. asylum while physically present in the United States. To lean more visit the UNHCR website
What is the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program?
What is the Houston TX Refugee Resettlement Program?
Refugee Resettlement Services HHSC works with the federal government and local non-profit organizations to help refugees, refugees with asylum status and victims of severe forms of human trafficking. Services include cash, medical assistance, interpretation and translation services, job training, English language training, education and cultural orientation services. The cash and medical assistance services are available to those who have lived in the United States for eight months or less. Most of the other social services are available to those who have lived in the United States five years or less. To learn more about refugee services Plase Visit HHSC Website
Who determines where and how many Refugees are resettled in the United States?
Annually, the U.S. Department of State, in coordination with Congress, makes a recommendation to the President of the United States at which time he signs a Presidential Determination. What are some of the services that Refugees are eligible for in Houston TX? Houston Services: RST Houston offers a number of case management and cash assistance programs to eligible refugees and asylees. These programs are designed to remove barriers to self sufficiency through employment, access to community support services, limited-term cash assistance, and help with many other issues refugees face in acclimating to their new homes. Services for unaccompanied children (UAC) Resettlement Services Job readiness training and job placement English language training Social Adjustment Services Refugee Cash Assistance .To learn more about refugee services Plase Visit The RST Web site
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