Many Rohingya Muslims living in western Myanmar fled to neighboring countries after the government in Myanmar started persecuting them.

“We are all living in worst conditions. Young women are assaulted, molested and raped by the Myanmar forces. Many of us have been forcibly taken away from homes, exploited and sent back to the community so that we live with humiliation forever," Maryam Khatoon, a Rohingya Muslim at the Jammu refugee camp, said on Sunday.

Married women are taken to unknown locations for work for days, weeks and months and paid nothing and many a times never returned,” she added.

“No matter how much we study. There is no space for us in the government jobs or offices. we just have to settle at the agricultural farms and after a lot of hard work in the farm, government takes 50 percent of the yield, not only this, they forcibly take us to work at army camps and offices for days and pay us nothing and whoever raises [his] voice gets killed the next moment,” a male refugee at the camp said.

 

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who, it claims, are not natives, and classifies them as illegal migrants, although, the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the eighth century.

Over the past two years, scores of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boat in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmarese government.

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education, and public services from them. The world body has also described the Muslim community as the Palestine of Asia and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

Reports say 650 Rohingya Muslims have been killed since June 28 during clashes in the Rakhine state in the west of the country. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

AO/MA/HJL