As Israel’s war against Hamas rages in the Gaza Strip and as the world is focused on this sliver of land sandwiched between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, there are other minorities elsewhere who feel their cause has been dismissed as unimportant.
The Rohingya in Myanmar, for instance, have been left feeling all but forgotten as they have been persecuted and forced to flee their homes in the face of violent and targeted campaigns led by the Myanmar military.
The UN notes that in August 2017, “over 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following violent military crackdowns in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They joined previous influxes of Rohingya who fled the country in the 70s and 90s. Today, nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, most of them in Cox’s Bazar district, near the border with Myanmar.”
According to Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Rohingya people “have faced persecution and abuse for decades, with many of those who remain in Myanmar forced to live in camps in Rakhine State, violently driven from their homes, their villages destroyed. Those who fled targeted persecution have sought refuge in countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and India.”
Bangladesh currently hosts the largest refugee settlement in the world, but since it does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees, they are stuck without any recognition or rights. They are not allowed access to formal education and there are few opportunities for work. Furthermore, there is no safe way to return home to Myanmar, leaving them in a precarious state of limbo and recognition.
In Sudan, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has led to the deaths of more than 10,000 people and displaced approximately six million, 80 percent of whom are internally displaced and hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to unstable areas in Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the involvement of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group and foreign military influence, notably from the United Arab Emirates, risk deepening the rivalry at the core of Sudan’s crisis.
Iran has executed over 600 people in 2023 and has suppressed the Iranian people’s universal right to life and liberty. The 2009 Green Revolution did not manage to gain traction but after the death of Mahsa Amini last year when she was arrested by the modesty patrol and killed allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly, the public exploded, and Iran’s streets have been filled ever since with protesters demanding justice and freedom.
According to the EU, “There are credible reports that a minor, Hamidreza Azari, and a protester, Milad Zohrevand, were executed in Iran on November 24 and 23 respectively.”
Pakistan is carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Afghani citizens from its territory, with 400,000 people crossing the border in just the last two months. The Hazara in particular, are being targeted as they are predominantly Shia Muslims.
Approximately four million Afghans lived in Pakistan, with 2.4 million of them having some form of approved government documentation. With the current exodus taking place, about 1.3 million Afghan nationals currently in Pakistan have no paperwork allowing them to remain in the country and are being forced to leave.
Part of the problem is that these Afghanis are being forced back to a country that also oppresses its own citizens. After the Taliban seized power in 2021, they outlawed many freedoms, especially for women.
As Chatham House notes, “They ban women from working outside their home, ban girls’ education after year six, deny women their right to political participation as well as their social, economic and cultural rights.”
In addition, Muslim Uyghurs in China are being imprisoned in labor camps and subjected to unimaginable cruelty. According to Amnesty International, an estimated one million Muslim people have been detained in camps and prisons in Xinjiang, northwest China, while China’s government denies their existence completely.
The Uyghurs are targeted for being Muslim, as the government attempts to erase their beliefs and practices and indoctrinate them with state-sanctioned propaganda about China.
Those that do put up resistance are punished – ranging from verbal abuse, food deprivation, solitary confinement and beatings. There have even been reports of deaths inside the facilities.
In Haiti, 5.2 million Haitians need humanitarian assistance and over 4.3 million face acute food insecurity, according to the UN.
Ulrika Richardson, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, who is also the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator noted that gangs are in control of 80 per cent of the capital Port-au-Prince and the violence has been spreading. Overall, there are some 300 armed gangs in the country, Richardson said, and 2023 has already seen 8,000 killings, lynchings, kidnappings and cases of brutal rape.
But the international community must do more.
The United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) is ending its mission even amid the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law and grave human rights violations and abuses taking place there.
This means whatever level of oversight that had existed, will no longer be available.
There is little pushback against Iran by the international community, mainly due to the efforts by Western countries to reconcile with the Islamic regime and reach some level of détente to reduce tensions. The idea is to reach agreements on the Islamic regime’s nuclear development, cut back sanctions and reopen the country to international trade.
These terrible tragedies are largely ignored by the global media and garner little attention in international fora. Now is the time to shine a greater spotlight on these issues so that the victims in these ongoing tragedies can receive more aid and perhaps more recognition for their suffering. They must not be forgotten.
