ISAS Insights

There is nothing new about the mass movements of people in the South Asian sub-continent. Over the last 70 years, when the British packed their bags and went home in 1947, millions of people were forced out of their homes. Since the areas where they were living were no longer considered safe for them, they moved both ways across the border between independent India and the newly-created Pakistan in the hope that they would find safety there. The latest of these flights of people involves the Rohingyas, a small Muslim minority of about one and a half million people that has been living just across Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar which lies in neighbouring Southeast Asia. As with the other crises in this larger neighbourhood, this too can perhaps be resolved by some border adjustments involving Myanmar and Bangladesh. If not, there is the real danger of the displaced Rohingyas becoming one more source of international terrorism. This is the fear that has resulted in India’s decision to deport 16,500 Rohingya refugees registered in the country by the United Nations.