There are around 12 million people worldwide who lack citizenship and basic rights in the country in which they live. This stateless status often keeps children from attending school and condemns families to poverty. And it can be particularly hard on women – a fact that I had reinforced to me on a recent trip to Malaysia.
In February, I and a colleague travelled to Malaysia and Bangladesh to assess the needs of the Rohingya population – a Muslim ethnic minority group from western Burma.
The Rohingya have no rights in Burma, and their lives are made impossible by such practices as forced labor, displacement and systematic physical assault and rape. They are not allowed to marry or travel to other villages unless they pay prohibitively high taxes.
The Burmese authorities stripped the Rohingya of their Burmese citizenship in 1982, arguing that they are Bangladeshi. But the Bangladeshi government also does not accept the Rohingya as their citizens. So the Rohingya community is stateless, with no government that accepts them.
Gultaz, her family and neighbours were displaced from their village near the archaeological ruins in Mrauk-U in Arakan State.
Rohingya children from Myanmar carry water from a pond,with the mountains of Myanmar seen behind, at a refugeecamp in Cox's Bazaar. REUTERS file photo by Andrew Biraj
The military wanted to develop the site for tourism and forcibly relocated them with no compensation. The Burmese authorities used brutal force to require Gultaz’s husband to work for them for no pay. They beat him in the face, and he has had two eye operations to try to repair the damage he suffered. He fled without being able to inform Gultaz of where he was going, so she was left alone struggling to look after their young son and suffering persecution from the Burmese authorities.
Eventually, Gultaz learned that her husband had made his way to Malaysia. She could no longer ensure the survival of her son in Burma and she decided that she had no option but to travel illegally, with her 12 year-old son, to Bangladesh, where they took a boat to Thailand. Then they made their way to the border between Thailand and Malaysia. Gultaz and her son were arrested there for illegal entry into Thailand, and they were held in a Thai detention centre for more than three months. The conditions in the detention centre were appalling for her and her child. When they finally got out of the detention centre, they managed to cross the border into Malaysia and Gultaz and her son were reunited with her husband.
Gultaz was relieved to get to Malaysia, where the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is permitted to assist the Rohingya. But, despite allowing UNHCR to register refugees there, Malaysia has not signed the international convention on refugees, and it still arrests foreigners who enter the country illegally, even if they are refugees or stateless.
Three years after arriving in Malaysia, when Gultaz was five months pregnant with her second child, she and her husband were both arrested by immigration authorities and were held in detention. Gultaz said that it was terrible being pregnant in the Malaysian detention centre, with inadequate food and unclean water, and she had difficulty getting medical attention. After two months, UNHCR secured the release of Gultaz from the detention centre. Over the past two years Malaysia has reduced arrests of refugees registered with UNHCR, but Gultaz’s experiences make her too scared to leave her house.
Gultaz struggles to survive economically, as her husband is still ill. But her fear of going out prevents her from taking up possible opportunities. She was offered a loan under a micro-credit scheme, but she refused as she was worried she would not be able to repay it. She pointed out that since she does not have the right to work in Malaysia, she fears she could be arrested again while trying to sell any products she would make. And she does not want to default on a loan.
When I asked Gultaz what she hoped for the future, she told me that her life was over (although she is only 37). All she thinks of is her children’s future. Her older child never went to school. But she hopes that her 3-year-old daughter will be allowed to go to government schools so that she will have a future.
Melanie Teff is a senior advocate for women’s rights at Refugees International. Refugees International is a Washington, DC-based organization that advocates to end refugee crises and receives no government or UN funding.
Following is a list with all links related to the report.
MULTIMEDIA
VIDEO: Who is stateless? – Emma Batha and Alex Whiting, AlertNet
VIDEO: What is statelessness? – Aubrey Wade/Open Society Foundations
VIDEO: Stateless Nubians - Katy Migiro, AlertNet
VIDEO: Stateless Rohingyas - AlertNet
VIDEO: Stateless children in Sabah –Thin Lei Win, AlertNet
VIDEO: Stateless Dominicans – Jon Anderson, Open Society Foundations
GRAPHIC: Stateless people worldwide - Reuters
STORIES
Invisible millions pay price of statelessness - Emma Batha, AlertNet
Bedouns suffer uncertain fate in Kuwait - Emma Batha, AlertNet
Colonialism renders Nubians stateless in Kenya - Katy Migiro, AlertNet
Millions of Nepal children risk statelessness - Nita Bhalla, AlertNet
Citizenship worries compromise Ivory Coast stability - George Fominyen, AlertNet
Sabah’s stateless children seek official status - AlertNet
Roma must get citizenship, says Europe rights chief - Megan Rowling, AlertNet
EXPERT VIEWS – Did statelessness fuel the conflict in Congo? - George Fominyen, AlertNet
Brazil bill gives hope to Latin America’s stateless – Anastasia Moloney, AlertNet
FACTBOXES AND RESOURCES
FACTBOX: Stateless groups around the world - Emma Batha, AlertNet
FACTBOX: How countries have tackled statelessness - Astrid Zweynert, AlertNet
LINKS: The world's most invisible people? - AlertNet
BLOGS
HAVE YOUR SAY: What does it mean to be stateless? - Tim Large, AlertNet
How DNA is helping young Thais get citizenship – Plan International
‘Drowning nations’ threaten new 21st Century statelessness – Maxine Burkett, ICAP
No rights for stateless Rohingya fleeing Burma - Refugees International
