Rohingya Crisis: ASEAN’s Efforts Paltry In The Face Of Protecting The World’s Most Persecuted by Samaya Anjum

The ASEAN Community has been subject to raging criticism over their inactions towards the Rohingya Refugee Crisis for the past couple of years, despite a lot of Southeast Asian nations being caught up on the spillover effects of it. On 26 June 2020, the 10 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), under the chairmanship of Vietnam, came together by means of teleconference for the 36th biannual ASEAN Summit, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak that has created hysteria worldwide. Among other things discussed, greater importance was placed on the tactics of COVID-19 response, post-pandemic recovery, and further collaboration between partner states. The ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights Development for the Changing World of Work was also adapted during the course of the meeting. For another consecutive year, the intergovernmental organization failed to come to a consensus regarding the plight of the Rohingya Muslims, conforming to their strict policy of non-interference that maintains harmony among the nations. However, shoving this grave matter aside for being one country’s “internal affair” is foolish, and frankly despicable.

For the Rohingyas, a perverse mechanism of Murphy’s Law has come to pass. With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the need to address their rights and safety has been ringing an urgent bell; but as the world shifts its focus on grappling with the situation of their own respective nations and their economic states, the troubles of the Rohingya Muslims are largely being blindsided. The virus cannot be contained in the overcrowded camps of Bangladesh where approximately 1.1 million refugees are living in impoverished conditions, nor inside the jam-packed boats aimlessly sailing the waters of the Indian Ocean for months on end.

The gradual demolition of human rights condition and rule of law in the Rakhine State of Myanmar

Their horrors originated long before the mass exodus began in October 2016. Muslim tolerance was finite when military rule began in Myanmar. In 1982, when a new citizenship law was passed recognizing 135 ethnic groups in the nation, the Rohingyas were left out of the list, rendering them stateless. This was followed by the first official census in 2014 and the democratic elections in 2015, where, on both occasions, the Rohingyas were deprived of their rights.

The Rohingyas were vulnerable to violation of religious rights, property rights and forced relocations among other forms of assault. Towards the end of October 2016, 300 Rohingya insurgents allegedly attacked Myanmar border police, thus triggering what the Military described as “clearance operations”. Entire villages were burnt down, thousands of men slaughtered, women raped and their children thrown into blazing fires right in front of their eyes. Since then, over a million people have reached the shores of Bangladesh, turning the southeastern strip of Cox’s Bazar into the largest refugee camp in the world; registered under UNHCR, thousands have also taken refuge in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.

COVID-19 Impacts on the Rohingya Muslims

With the COVID-19 outbreak worsening in recent weeks, nations’ behavior towards the Rohingyas has become more rigid. Adhering to their Immigration Act, the Malaysian authorities have barred any entry of refugees, returning trawlers back to sea, or sentencing people to detention centres or ‘caning’ as a result of their “punishable offense”. Imposing criminal penalties on asylum-seekers is a clear violation of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

There is also a looming fear of xenophobia; in early June, a Whatsapp screenshot circulated around Twitter exposing how Rohingya refugee children were expelled from kindergartens or madrassas over cited fears of coronavirus transmission risks.

Taking advantage of people’s helpless states, human traffickers perform daylight robbery in the refugee camps. In an interview with the BBC, Khadiza Begum, a 50 year-old Rohingya refugee, looks back on the bone-chilling events she fell victim to whilst making an attempt to leave the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in hopes for a better future on the coasts of Malaysia. “They would run both engines so that none could hear the sound of splashing water when bodies were thrown out,” she recalled.

When the Malaysian authorities sealed their borders from unauthorized boats, hundreds of refugees crammed into trawlers became trapped on the waters with shortages of food, water and proper sanitation for months. Time and again, Thai or Malaysian authorities provided these boats with sustenance then pushed them back to sea. A lot of people died en route, and the fortunate ones who made it back to the soils of Bangladesh or Myanmar often risked persecution once again.

Responses of ASEAN countries on the crisis

At the 36th ASEAN Summit, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhiyuddin Yassin was the only representative present who stressed the desperate need to address the Rakhine State Crisis. However, anyone who lightly scanned through his performed speech at the conference would catch the clear impression of how it inclined towards self-preservation, reducing the graveness of the crisis that has emerged from genocidal claims into the “burden” of its aftermath on supporting nations. “Malaysia continues to bear the brunt of this prolonged crisis, which still appears to have no foreseeable end. We can no longer take more as our resources and capacity are already stretched, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, Malaysia is unfairly expected to do more to accommodate incoming refugees,” he says.

This isn’t an isolated case either. According to sources, Thailand’s three-step action plan allows the Thai Navy to push back boats carrying refugees to sea, and those who are able to anchor on land are arrested. Hundreds of asylum-seekers have been locked up inside detention camps around the country. Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government has refused UNHCR to carry out refugee status determination of the boat people, and moreover, the Rohingyas are victimized by having taken away their ability to register as legal migrant workers unlike other Burmese people. Concerning these issues, Brad Adams, the Asia Director of Human Rights Watch commented, “Southeast Asian governments are callously passing the buck on protecting Rohingya refugees desperate for a sanctuary and a future after Myanmar’s military drove them from their homes with mass atrocities.”

During the 33rd ASEAN Summit, hosted by Indonesia, a “preliminary needs assessment” was drawn up for the safe repatriation of the one million Rohingyas trapped inside camps in Bangladesh by ASEAN’s Emergency Response and Action Team. According to the Human Rights Watch, the 56 page report was developed without any input from the Rohingyas, and moreover, nowhere had it addressed the people as “Rohingya”, robbing them of their self-identity. At no point was Myanmar’s involvement in the genocide and ethnic cleansing mentioned, and neither were the root causes of the damage. It seems that the ASEAN has lost its sense of moral compass.

The ASEAN Charter labyrinth

From the perspective of the Bangkok Declaration (also known as the ASEAN Charter), the ASEAN Community has found themselves tangled up in an absurd Gordian Knot. Article 1(7) of the ASEAN Charter clearly states one of ASEAN’s core purposes, which is “to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, with due regard to the rights and responsibilities of the Member States of ASEAN.” And being the most important intergovernmental organization in Southeast Asia, ASEAN naturally falls into the same bracket as the Rakhine State Crisis – the failure to address which has made it infamous in the eyes of an international audience.

In contrast, the Principles of the ASEAN stated in Article 2: 2(e) reinforces a strong policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of a Member State which protects the harmony within the Community. Myanmar being one of the Member States of the organization, the application of this article is directly linked to the case of the Rohingyas. A lock in the law in guise of Article 20(1) prevents any conclusion from being drawn during the ASEAN Summit – the highest authority of the ASEAN – since a positive consensus among all Member Nations needs to be achieved in order to take any decision. For the Rohingya Crisis to be addressed, the Summit relies on Myanmar’s vote against itself, the probability of which seems null in the foreseeable future.

Despite this, certain unconventional routes require to be taken during times like these. The United Nations has defined the Rohingya minority as the world’s most persecuted, and that itself is a clear portrayal of the severity of the matter. As mentioned in Article 20(2) of the ASEAN Charter, “where consensus cannot be achieved, the ASEAN Summit may decide how a specific decision can be made.” To resolve the limitations of drawing a consensus, this article may be used to draft a proper solution to the Rohingya Crisis that constitutes of not just a hasty repatriation plan, but addresses the root causes of the genocide.

In aims of maintaining unity and collaboration among the Member States in the coming years, it is high time that the Community update the Charter. Their dedication towards the protection of human rights and the rule of law needs to be made a clearer priority.

References:

*Samaya Anjum is a student of social sciences at Sciences Po Paris, France and a writer of political subjects concerning the comparative politics of South Asia and media censorship.

August 12, 2020

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