“CRISIS WITHIN A CRISIS”
Rohingya refugee Arfaat Mohammed Emran fled Maungdaw, a town in Rakhine State, and arrived in Malaysia almost a decade ago.
He now teaches at a community school funded by UNHCR in Langkawi.
The father of two is grateful to Malaysia for giving him and his family temporary refuge, despite not being a signatory to the UN convention on refugees.
“We feel safe, but not for a long time,” he added. “We have been waiting for UN consideration for any resettlement, or if our country is at peace, we need to return to our country, like voluntary return.”
But the situation back home appears to be worsening with the army cutting off communication, he said.
Arfaat hopes that Malaysia’s role as the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year will put a spotlight on the plight of Rohingyas and stop the persecution.
At least 30 ASEAN meetings will be held in Langkawi this year.
“It’s a crisis within a crisis,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science.
“On one hand, there’s a crisis of the coup and civil war that has to be resolved somehow, and ASEAN has a big, leading role in that,” he added.
“But within that crisis, ASEAN also has to bear in mind the Rohingya crisis within Rakhine State, and to somehow deal with the Arakan army so that they tone down, they cease their persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.”
