Rohingyas are the muslim community living in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Their number stands at 1 million people out of the 53 million population. They are the world’s largest stateless population in a single country. They are perceived to be the most persecuted community in the world.
Since World War Two they have been treated increasingly by Burmese authorities as illegal, interloping Bengalis. The United Nations has reported that the army may have committed ethnic cleansing. The latest military crackdown, which began on August 25, caused almost 90,000 Rohingyas to flee under fire to squalid, overflowing relief camps across the Bangladeshi border in just two weeks. Officially close to 400 people had died by early September, but human rights activists claim to have confirmation of at least 1,000 deaths and believe the figure is much higher. The army “clearing operations” which sparked the mass exodus of civilians in both October 2016 and in August 2017