Rohingya Refugee Human Rights Violations : ASEAN Chooses Not to Care?
Written by — Jamalia Sumala, Salma Indri Yulianti, Muhammad Khoirur Roziqin
The ethnic Rohingya war, which came to light in 2012, is still ongoing. More than 200 ethnic Rohingya people arrived in the Indonesian region of Aceh on November 21, 2023. The Rohingya people in Myanmar have made the difficult decision to leave their own nation by sea, seeking refuge anywhere that can ensure their safety, as a result of the intensifying ethnic violence within the country. But it seems that their hopes that the other countries they have agreed to willingly accept them must be wiped out. For example, when they arrived in Aceh, Indonesia, many of the locals refused their arrival because of the criminal recordings that had been carried out by some ethnic Rohingya while in exile in another country, and then asked for them to be allocated.
To put it mildly, the crimes they committed during their escape have been recorded, but they are also victims, having to survive without food in the sea for the duration of the journey has made them even more tormented. They need a safe place to shelter, and so far, there are five countries that clearly refuse to accommodate the ethnic Rohingya in their country. If so, where should they go to get some help? Is there not a single international institution or legal body that can clearly offer guarantees and urge its member nations to offer support?
The Rohingya ethnic group was subjected to a variety of violations of human rights by Myanmar including discrimination, expulsion, and even murder and sexual harassment. After migrating to Bangladesh, the group searched for a better place to live due to the terrible and inadequate conditions there, including a scarcity of food and poor educational facilities.
The Rohingya ethnic minority eventually looked for a better space to live in Southeast Asia, from Malaysia to Indonesia. They were willing to drift at sea for a long time and only brought a small supply of food to survive, but when they arrived at their destination country they were subjected to even more inhumane treatment, ranging from rejection from various countries to being used as material for smuggling and human trafficking by large irresponsible individuals for their personal gain. Many of the refugees are exploited as weapons of crime, with orders to conduct various crimes such as theft in order to earn a little money to survive. The fact that their human rights have been totally violated is another difficult scenario that the refugees must put up with.
ASEAN is an international organization that governs Southeast Asian regional areas. Maintaining the welfare, security, and human rights of its member nations is undoubtedly ASEAN’s responsibility. But, in reality when Rohingya people of Myanmar as an ASEAN member country, were subjected to terrible human rights crimes, they acted differently and acted like they didn’t care at all. The Indonesian foreign minister, who also serves as chairman of ASEAN, once said that ASEAN has a strong commitment to helping Rohingya refugees and will continue to make contributions, and she also said not to forget the Rohingya people. This was said on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN general assembly in New York on September 21.
However, back to the reality and also the conditions that we can see now, ASEAN has not provided any policies or even solutions at all for Southeast Asian countries to handle the surge in Rohingya refugees. This international organization can only provide calming sentences without taking any real action to handle this case of major human rights violations.
When the coup occurred in Myanmar in 2021, ASEAN actually provided the Five Points Consensus/5PC policy. This policy was of course ineffective and was only repeated by ASEAN, and there was no significant progress in resolving this case. In actuality, a regional organization that is supposed to be able to assist in resolving disputes can only do nothing more than keep quiet, allow its members to get overburdened, and put further financial strain on its member nations.
Because of ASEAN’s silence in managing this situation, Rohingya migrants will become increasingly confused about finding a place to stay, and countries in Southeast Asia are also at a loss for how to handle the Rohingya refugee case at the height of the crisis. If ASEAN, a large regional organization, is unable to give victims of human rights crimes a sense of security, how can it address the underlying causes of human rights violations in the Rohingya community?
Since one of its member states is still unable to uphold human rights, we believe that ASEAN has failed to live up to its promise to safeguard human rights on a regional basis. So yet, ASEAN has made no clear actions or moves in response to the ethnic Rohingya crisis. ASEAN, as a country that surrounds Myanmar, should have the capacity to apply penalties because, indirectly, Myanmar has broken its vow to ASEAN to safeguard human rights in its own country.
ASEAN should not remain silent as the ethnic Rohingya struggle in the middle of the sea with limited supplies and without a specific objective in sight. Without a strong appeal from the nations where the Rohingya ethnic group came to ask for help, this neglect and reluctance to do so has intensified the suffering of their ethnic groups, and the bad news that comes about them may also be caused by this. It’s possible that the Rohingya ethnic group got together and committed crimes because they were tired of being underestimated and not being properly helped.
The situation for Rohingya migrants is getting worse and the quantity of refugees entering Southeast Asian countries has become overwhelming. Rejection due to the high number of migrants entering is also not uncommon. Of course, this situation is beginning to demonstrate that this case will soon reach the top of the crisis.
International institutions and organizations should start paying more special attention to this matter, especially ASEAN as a regional organization, which has a big responsibility in this humanitarian case. Before the crisis reaches its peak, the organization should begin implementing policies that can at least lessen the situation. Some of these policies include urging Southeast Asian nations to set up temporary suitable locations for Rohingya refugees to settle in, offering financial support to help host nations accommodate the refugees, Help to restore the stolen human rights of the Rohingya ethnic group by ensuring their safety when they return to Myanmar, and also starting to slowly resolve the root of the problem about human rights violations of the Rohingya group with Myanmar by imposing severe sanctions on the country.
Meanwhile, we’re all still trying to figure out how to deal with this humanitarian crisis in such a way that it at least subsides. The current situation of Rohingya refugees is that they continue to arrive in various nations. Aside from that, a number of negative rumors about the refugees are beginning to occur, adding to the chaos and causing tensions within the local community. In dealing with this humanitarian matter, we are not only racing against time, but also against a number of additional obstacles.
However, we can conclude that all of the conditions endured by the Rohingya are the result of a lack of attention, assistance, and guaranteed protection from world citizens particularly international organizations, in this case ASEAN, which oversees Myanmar and has promised to protect human rights. ASEAN should deal with this situation as soon as possible so that it does not become more complicated and intensify the impact of the problems that occur. Hopefully, this article will make ASEAN recognize that the Rohingya ethnic crisis must still be resolved.
