It started as a Google search. A question. Results filtered to deliver updates within the last year. What people group is the most oppressed in the world?
Answer: Rohingya people. Never heard of them. Here’s a bit of their story.
Wiki: The Rohingya people have been described as “one of the world’s least wanted minorities” and “some of the world’s most persecuted people.” Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya population is denied citizenship under Myanmar nationality law. They are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.
Before the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis and the military crackdown in 2016 and 2017, the Rohingya population in Myanmar was around 1.0 to 1.3 million. Since 2015, over 900,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to south-eastern Bangladesh alone and other major Muslim nations. More than 100,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar are confined in camps for internally displaced persons.
BBC: A report published by UN investigators in August 2018 accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out mass killings and rapes with “genocidal intent”… “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aka Doctors Without Borders.
Estimates add an additional 43,000 deaths from missing parents, putting the Rohingya Refugee Children in desperate need of aid, the U.N. says.
The UN Refugee Agency is helping Rohingya refugee families during this ongoing crisis. Read more about what this organization does. Donate here.
Important update to story – September 8.
Give. Pray. Post. 