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Ushar Daniele

Rashid arrived on the Malaysian island of Langkawi as a young child after spending weeks at sea in a fishing boat crammed with Myanmar’s unwanted: Rohingya Muslims driven out by soldiers and ethnic Buddhist militias who had razed their villages.
A decade on, the now 14-year-old has witnessed countless boats arrive on the island over the years, as his stateless community continues to flee persecution.
“We did not choose Malaysia because we thought it was a good or nice country,” he told This Week in Asia, requesting to give only his first name as he feared deportation.
“The only reason was that my father was already there, and my mother decided to follow him so we could survive.”
The pattern of flight is familiar for the Rohingya.
At least 28 Rohingya – including nine women and five children – died when a boat capsized near Langkawi in November, a grim reminder of the dangers faced by one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

As Myanmar’s ruling junta holds elections observers say are aimed at keeping it in power, the prospects of returning home for the Rohingya are as bleak as ever.
Since the 1970s, the Rohingya have been expelled from Myanmar’s westernmost Rakhine state, where they are seen as Muslim outsiders and not an ethnic group belonging to a country scarred by questions of identity and religion.
In 2017, the Myanmar military launched an operation with the help of ethnic Rakhine militias that killed thousands and drove a million Rohingya into Bangladesh, with some also fleeing by boat further south to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The UN said this amounted to ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya. An arrest warrant for crimes against humanity has also been issued against junta chief Min Aung Hlaing by the International Criminal Court.
But since the junta took over in a coup in 2021, more Rohingya have faced violence and seen crucial aid lifelines dry up or cut, including this year by the sudden closure of America’s humanitarian funding arm USAID.
The Rohingya have also been trapped between junta air strikes and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group among the most powerful in Myanmar that is fighting the central government, yet still harbours hatred for their Muslim neighbours.
“Civilians have been killed, forcibly displaced, arbitrarily detained, and in some cases used as human shields by the military,” Fortify Rights senior human rights defender Yap Lay Sheng said.


As a consequence, more have attempted to escape to neighbouring Bangladesh and south by boat, dangerous journeys that often end in tragedy.
Up to 150,000 Rohingya fled to Cox’s Bazar in the last 18 months, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data running up until July. Over 600 are feared to have died or gone missing travelling between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Polls apart
Myanmar’s State Administration Council will hold a phased election beginning on Sunday in Yangon.
Pilloried by the international community as a “sham”, the ballot is designed to transition the military junta into a ‘civilian government’. But it is expected to ultimately be steered by the same generals responsible for the violence that drove the Rohingya out.
But even if elections were possible in the violent chaos of Rakhine state, the Rohingya would not qualify to vote.
The UNHCR said Bangladesh is hosting more than 1 million registered Rohingya refugees.

Malaysia has around 200,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers. Around half of them are believed to be Rohingya.
Thailand, India and Indonesia also host asylum seekers, often arriving by boat, but they are considered illegal immigrants, unable to access full services and increasingly facing tensions with local communities – especially in Indonesia’s Aceh.
The spike in sea journeys last year came as foreign aid to Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh began to recede. In January this year, humanitarian funding from the US was slashed as Washington pulled aid programmes, affecting more than half of the 1.2 million Rohingya in the camps.
Charles Santiago, chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said the regional bloc had consistently failed to manage the Rohingya crisis, instead leaving Bangladesh to shoulder hundreds of thousands of desperate people in Cox Bazar, one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
“Bangladesh has been very clear that it cannot manage this crisis alone,” he said.
Global aid cuts had also stretched resources thin for the Rohingya who had made it to Malaysia, said Adrian Pereira, director of North South Initiative, a Malaysia-based migrant and refugee non-governmental organisation that works closely with the Rohingya.
Malaysia has become an enabling environment for abuse
Adrian Pereira, director of North South Initiative
As NGOs cut back services or shut down entirely, Rohingya face greater risks of exploitation as cheap labour. In Malaysia, they are allowed to engage in informal work without labour protections.
“Malaysia has become an enabling environment for abuse,” Pereira said. “Malaysia has failed to protect refugees adequately. Racism, xenophobia and precarious living conditions are widespread yet the system offers no alternatives.”
Staying in Rakhine is not an option and that means more boats will come laden with desperate people.
For Rashid, there has been joy and life in the pain of dislocation: his younger brother was born in Langkawi.
But hopes of returning home are distant as long as the junta continues to hold power.
“One day if we finally get our rights, safety and freedom, I want to return home to Rakhine and live peacefully in my own home again,” he said.


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Myanmar

Rohingya crisis deepens as Myanmar election offers no hope for return

A boat with Rohingya refugees attempts to enter Malaysia from Langkawi in this photo released on January 4. Photo: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency/AP



Malaysian rescuers approach a jetty after rescuing Rohingya migrant Iman Shorif (left) after his boat capsized near Langkawi on November 11. Photo: AFP

Rohingya bride Mushorofa is escorted by her father to her husband’s house on her wedding day in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on November 21. Photo: AP

Myanmar hospital air strikes heighten election turmoil amid global inaction

People check a hospital  that was hit by a military air strike in Mrauk-U in Myanmar earlier this month. Photo: AP

A vehicle lies damaged on the ground after a Myanmar military air strike on a hospital in Mrauk U on December 11. Photo: AFP

A man cycles past an election campaign poster in Yangon, Myanmar, on December 10. Photo: EPA

Myanmar’s cyberscam crackdown: just a pre-poll ‘law-and-order’ show?

White smoke billows after an explosion at KK Park online scam centre in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on  October 25, Photo: AP

Alleged scam centre workers and victims sit next to dismantled IT and electronic appliances during a crackdown in Shwe Kokko on February 18. Photo: AFP

Members of People’s Party attend an election campaign event in Yangon on November 19. Photo: AFP

Myanmar’s criticism of Takaichi signals ‘loyalty’ to China ahead of election

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in Moscow on May 9. Photo: Xinhua

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi applauds a diplomatic delegation at the Diet in Tokyo last week. Myanmar said her comments on Taiwan showed Japan had not learned its lessons from history. Photo: EPA

Members of Myanmar’s Union Election Commission show a voting machine at a press conference in Naypyidaw in September ahead of a planned election beginning later this month. Photo: AFP

Members of the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces march in an undisclosed location in Myanmar’s northern Shan State. The country is embroiled in an ongoing civil war. Photo: AFP

Can the Philippines manage Asean’s Myanmar crisis while advancing South China Sea code?

Soldiers patrol a road in Kyaukme, northern Shan State, Myanmar, in October. The Philippines will take up the Myanmar issue in January when Asean’s foreign ministers convene to shape the bloc’s next steps. Photo: AP

Secretary of Foreign Affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro has been appointed special envoy of the chair to Myanmar during the Philippines’ 2026 Asean chairmanship. Photo: EPA

People’s Party members attend an election campaign event in Yangon last week. Asean has decided not to send observers to Myanmar’s general election. Photo: AFP

A Philippine Air Force helicopter and coastguard vessel during a training drill in disputed waters of the South China Sea in June. The South China Sea code of conduct is expected to be the Philippines’ priority in 2026. Photo: EPA-EFE

Is Asean’s ‘meek diplomacy’ sufficient to end Myanmar conflict?

Myanmar’s soldiers stand in front of a captured police station in Kyaukme, a town in Shan state that the resistance forces had controlled for more than a year. Photo: AP

Leaders of Asean, China, Japan and South Korea attend the Asean Plus Three summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Asean has been criticised for lacking the political will to deal with the Myanmar conflict. Photo: Xinhua

An election campaign poster showing Khin Yi, Myanmar’s chairman of the army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, is seen in Yangon on Monday. Photo: AFP

People protest against Myanmar’s military junta at Parliament Square in London in August. Photo: EPA

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Myanmar’s phased election, set to start on Sunday, is likely to be steered by the same leaders responsible for driving the Rohingya out


Myanmar’s phased election, set to start on Sunday, is likely to be steered by the same leaders responsible for driving the Rohingya out.


Rohingya crisis deepens as Myanmar election offers no hope for return

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Myanmar’s phased election, set to start on Sunday, is likely to be steered by the same leaders responsible for driving the Rohingya out

Myanmar’s phased election, set to start on Sunday, is likely to be steered by the same leaders responsible for driving the Rohingya out