New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- A new UN Human Rights report, released on September 3, 2026, paints a grim picture of the Myanmar Rohingya Muslim minority. The report, covering June 2025 to May 2026, finds that Rohingya civilians were trapped between two armed actors - the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army - due to airstrikes, arson attacks, displacement, denial of assistance, and systematic abuse and persecution. In areas it controls across northern Rakhine, the Arakan Army has mirrored the military's denial of Rohingya identity, referring to them as "Bengali," a term that casts them as foreign migrants rather than a recognised minority of Myanmar. The report states that 2025 was the deadliest year on record for Rohingya undertaking maritime journeys, with 892 people dead or missing at sea. By May 2026, 4,665 people had attempted the crossing, with 280 reported dead or missing. By the end of April, nearly 150,000 Rohingya had newly registered as refugees in Bangladesh. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are now living in Bangladesh, most of them in camps in the Cox's Bazar area. A large number arrived after August 2017, when more than 7,00,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar's Rakhine State following a military crackdown amid widespread violence and human rights abuses.
The Rohingya people of Myanmar are the world's largest stateless population, estimated at some 2.8 million people. Denied citizenship and subjected to decades of persecution by military authorities, most were forced by genocidal violence to flee and are now spread across several countries. While the conditions of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are widely documented, less attention is given to the approximately 22,500 Rohingya refugees registered with UNHCR who have fled to India, observes Refugees International. As Myanmar identifies Rohingya as a Bengali community, the ruling Hindu nationalist parties of India often stigmatise Bengali citizens as Rohingya infiltrators and illegally detain them. During the last Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, propaganda against Rohingya Muslim refugees was a major election topic, which helped polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of Hindu nationalist parties. Rohingya refugee issues are also impacting Malaysia and Thailand, where refugees face deportation threats.
The UN refugee agency estimates that since the 2017 genocide in Myanmar, more than 126,000 Rohingya have resettled in Malaysia, making it the second-largest host country after Bangladesh. Rights groups believe the actual number is far higher. The biggest exodus began in August 2017, after a brutal military crackdown. This followed attacks in which Rohingya militants killed up to 99 Hindu civilians, according to Amnesty International. The Myanmar army massacred thousands of Rohingya, raped women and burned their villages. Myanmar is now facing a landmark genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which saw deposed leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi testify. As Myanmar's leader at the time, she was sharply criticised for her government's response to the killings, including playing down the violence.
Despite Malaysia being a Muslim-majority country, the Rohingya there face pressure, including an online campaign that rights advocates say is fuelling xenophobia and intimidation. For years, efforts to repatriate Rohingya to Myanmar have stalled over the ethics of returning them to a country where conditions have worsened since the 2021 coup. Caught between a hostile adoptive home and a motherland that denies their rights, Rohingya migrants in Malaysia face an agonising choice. Analysts observe that Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is "politically embattled" and "wants to be seen as powerful on immigration enforcement" ahead of elections due by early 2028. Anwar has invited coup leader turned civilian president Min Aung Hlaing for an official visit to expedite repatriations. It would be the first such welcome since the coup for Min Aung Hlaing, named as a chief architect of the Rohingya crackdown in numerous legal cases. As anti-Rohingya sentiment rises, Anwar appears to have bowed to it. He has announced a plan to send the Rohingya home; the first set of roughly 1,500 left on Tuesday (September 29).
Political commentators observe that the Rohingyas and Palestinians share certain similarities. Like the Palestinians, the Rohingyas have been subjected to state-sponsored persecution, violence, pogroms, ethnic cleansing and genocide in their homeland in northern Rakhine State. They have also been expelled from their homeland in numerous waves: 1978, 1991-1992, 2012, 2015 and 2016-2018. Unfortunately, just as the Western-led international community has failed the Palestinians, it is failing the Rohingyas in finding a political solution, facilitating refugee repatriation and providing adequate funds for basic needs. Consequently, Bangladesh, host of the world's largest refugee camp, faces the massive socio-economic burden of the Rohingya crisis. At the recently held 81st UN General Assembly, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman urged continued aid for Rohingya refugees. He said only their safe return to Myanmar can ease mounting pressure and avert a deeper crisis. Rahman urged the United Nations and the wider international community to continue life-saving assistance until the Rohingya can return to Myanmar, saying, "If the international community fails to ensure justice for the displaced Rohingya people, this could turn into a humanitarian crisis in the near future."
Rohingya and Palestinians share patterns of persecution and state-sanctioned aggression. Both groups face massive displacement, widespread destruction of homes and strict restrictions on movement. Both are devoid of state sovereignty and citizenship, attracting critical international scrutiny. The Palestinianization of the Rohingya crisis is complete.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a professor of Business Administration
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.