Saudi Arabia's Persecution and Deportation of Rohingyas Is a Breach of International Norms and Islamic Principles
New Age Islam
Correspondent
19 October
2020
A boy
stands in front of a tent donated by Saudi Arabia at one of the IDP camps in
Sittwe, Myanmar [File: Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images]
----
At a time
when the military junta in Myanmar persecutes Rohingya Muslims and more than a
million Rohingya Muslims have taken shelter in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia has
showed the highest degree of insensitivity and ruthlessness towards them while
dealing with the Rohingya issue. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claims to be the
leader of the Islamic world but has not done anything to remove the sufferings
of the hapless and persecuted Rohingya Muslim community. On the contrary, it
has aggravated their problems. In September, Saudi Arabia asked the government
of Bangladesh to issue passports to 54, 000 Rohingyas living in the Kingdom.
Most of them are living in Saudi Arabia for more than four decades. Saudi
Arabia has threatened Bangladesh with ban on the entry of Bangladeshi migrant
workers in Saudi Arabia if it fails to comply witb its request.
Most of the
Bangladeshi workers have returned to Bangladesh during COVID-19 lockdown and
are waiting to return to the kingdom. The threat of Saudi Arabia has come at a
critical juncture.
The Foreign
Ministry of Bangladesh has said that it can issue passports only to those who
held Bangladeshi passports previously but most of the Rohingyas did not belong
to Bangladesh and have not even seen Bangladesh.
Rohingya
refugees living in Malaysia shout slogans during a protest against the
treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, in Kuala Lumpur on 8 September 2017
(AFP)
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Bangladesh
started sending labours to Saudi Arabia in large numbers from 2015 after
Malaysia banned its women from going to Saudi Arabia following reports of
mistreatment of its women in Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh gets $ 3.5 billion of
remittances from these migrant workers. Therefore, a ban on Bangladesh migrant
workers in Saudi Arabia will have disastrous consequences on the economy of
Bangladesh.
Saudi
Arabia is well aware of this Achilles' Heel of Bangladesh and has decided to
exploit its weakness to offload its Rohingya burden to Bangladesh.
Most of the
Rohingyas have come to Saudi Arabia in the 60s and 70s after the military junta
of Myanmar came to power in 1962 and started persecuting Rohingyas. In 1982,
the military government stripped Rohingyas of citizenship. The Rohingyas fled
to Bangladesh in large numbers after their persecution in the 70s. During that
period, thousands of Rohingyas also fled to Saudi Arabia. They arrived to Saudia
Arabia via India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and, of course, Bangladesh with
forged documents since they did not have Burmese passports.
In the 60s
and 70s, King Faisal had showed mercy on the Rohingya refugees and had granted
them residency rights on human grounds. The Rohingyas were granted residency
papers even without proper travel documents because King Faisal had taken into
ccosideration their plight.
India
deported a family of five Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar on January 3.
(Representational photo | Reuters)
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Many of the
Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia have been born, brought up and educated in
Saudi Arabia and know about the Arabic culture and speak Arabic language
fluently. They have every right to be granted Saudi citizenship. But on the contrary,
the Saudi government wants this persecuted community to be deported to
Bangladesh.
Since 2007,
Saudi Arabia started pressurising Bangladesh to take them back as it claims
they came to Saudi Arabia from Bangladesh.
Earlier the
KSA requested Myanmar government to issue passports to the Rohingyas but it
declined the request on the ground that it did not recognise Rohingyas as
citizens of Myanmar.
Therefore,
Saudi Arabia started putting pressure on Bangladesh to take back Rohingyas.
Saudi
government has put thousands of Rohingyas in detention centres in Jeddah where
they are physically and mentally tortured. They have been kept n the detention
centre for one year to five years without any charges.
Rohingyas
fleeing Myanmar, heading to Bangladesh on 10 October, 2017 [Stefanie
Glinski/Thomson Reuters Foundation]
-----
In 2018,
Saudi Arabia deported dozens of Rohingyas to Bangladesh. In 2019, 650 Rohingyas
lodged in Shumaisi Detention Centre staged hunger strike against their
incarceration and deportation. The authorities tortured them physically and
mentally to break their hunger strike. They took away the bedsheets, blankets
and pillows of the inmates while the AC was on 24×7 to compel them to break
their hunger strike.
Some of
them were put in "hot rooms" where the heat was unbearable and the
authorities told them they will be taken out of the hot rooms if they broke
their hunger strike. Because of these tortures, many Rohingya lost their mental
equilibrium.
This
treatment of the Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia on the basis of residency
papers granted by its own government is a violation not only of the
international norms but of the Islamic principles on treatment of prisoners
which it claims to uphold.
The UNCHR
requested the authorities of Makkah to discuss the state of Rohingya refugees
in Makkah but they did not respond.
The UN has
earlier asked the Saudi government to grant Rohingyas refugee status but the
KSA has been insisting that they are citizens of Bangladesh and so it sbould
take them back.
But the
reality is that Bangladesh is hosting the Rohingyas as refugees and opened its
borders to give them shelter after they were persecuted in 1970. 400,000
Rohingyas took refuge in Bangladesh. In 2017, another 7, 40, 000 Rohingyas
crossed over to Bangladesh to escape persecution. There are another 500, 000
Urdu speaking stranded Pakistanis living in refuee camps in Bangladesh whom the
Bangladesh has given refuge.
This shows
the humanitarian face of Bangladesh that hosts the biggest refugee camp in the
world.
But instead
of appreciating the troubles Bangladesh has taken to save the Rohingyas from
persecution and starvation, Saudi Arabia has been pressuring Bangladesh to take
another 54,000 Rohingyas which are not the liability of Bangladesh since they
are not citizens of Bangladesh.
Saudi
Arabia had raised the issue of Rohingyas with Bangladesh in February this year
as well. Now that the migrant labourers are waiting to return and have been
flocking to the airports for the visa, Saudi Arabia has upped the ante finding
this an opportune time to make Bangladesh relent.
Bangladesh
fears that even if it issues passports to the Rohingyas of Saudi Arabia, Saudi
Arabia may use tbe passports to repatriate them to Bangladesh on the ground
that they are Bangladeshi citizens. Saudi Arabia says that the passports are
needed in order to renew their residency. But the questions is why their
residency cannot be renewed without a Bangladeshi passport when the King Faisal
government had granted them residency papers without even proper travel
documents.
The leader
of Free Rohingya Coalition, Ro Nay San Lwin has urged the Saudi government to
renew the residency of the Rohingyas in the Kingdom.
Instead of
trying to offload the Rohingya refugees of its land to Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia
should pressurise Myanmar to take Rohingyas back and reinstate their
citizenship. It should raise the issue on the OIC platform and find a political
and diplomatic solution to the decades long issue. It is not an issue between
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia but is an international issue. Saudi Arabia has
good relations with China and had even defended China on Uyghur issue. China
has been defending Myanmar on Rohingya issue. Saudi Arabia should use its
relations with China for a resolution of the Rohingya issue. As for the 54,000,
Rohingyas kiving in Saudia Arabia, it should grant citizenship to them as they
have been living in the country for more than fifty years and have assimilated
in the Saudi society. After all they are Muslims.
URL: https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/saudi-arabia-persecution-deportation-rohingyas/d/123196
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