Mizzima Editorial
Last week, 128 organizations endorsed a statement to coincide with World Refugee Day on 20 June that called on the United Nations, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other neighbouring countries to address the root cause of the unprecedented mass displacement in Myanmar and its impacts across the region.
One of the NGOs, Progressive Voice said the international community must act urgently to end the military junta’s atrocities and hold the perpetrators accountable under international law through all available avenues.
The NGOs called on the international community to directly support trusted local frontline humanitarian responders in delivering much-needed humanitarian aid to displaced communities through locally-led cross-border channels. They called on Myanmar’s neighbouring countries to allow and support such cross-border channels for these frontline humanitarian responders to deliver aid to displaced communities.
The statement called on Myanmar’s neighbouring countries and the wider international community to respect the principle of non-refoulement, end the arbitrary detention, pushbacks, and deportations of Myanmar people, and provide them with legal protection, humanitarian aid, and access to essential services.
Over 2.8 million people have been internally displaced in Myanmar by the Myanmar military junta’s violence since 2021, according to Progressive Voice. It says that the Myanmar military junta’s ongoing mass atrocity crimes continue to intensify mass displacement and suffering across the country and beyond its borders into neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Since its illegal coup attempt in 2021, the junta’s relentless violence has internally displaced more than 2.8 million people countrywide—an 87% increase as compared to 1.5 million at this time last year. Prior to the coup attempt, the Myanmar military’s violence had already forced an estimated 328,000 into protracted displacement—particularly in Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, Shan, and Mon States. The actual figures are likely significantly higher given reports from humanitarian responders on the ground with direct access to the affected populations.
For the thousands of Myanmar people crossing international borders to seek safety from the junta’s violence, protection remains far from guaranteed. In addition to facing arbitrary arrest and detention, many Myanmar people have been pushed back or otherwise forcibly returned to Myanmar by neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
This is occurring despite the undeniable reality that any Myanmar person will face irreparable harm at the hands of the Myanmar military junta upon return.
In many neighbouring countries, Myanmar refugees lack access to legal protection, humanitarian assistance, employment, formal education, healthcare, and other essential services. Forced to live in the shadows, countless Myanmar people seeking safety across the region are instead denied their human dignity and subjected to exploitation, violence, and other human rights violations with no means of legal recourse.
The call provided a fitting message for the World Refugee Day, highlighting the condition of the displaced in Myanmar.
