Medill explains – The stateless Rohingyas

A temporary clinic provides some 13,000 Rohingya with basic health care two days per week in the Rakhine state, Myanmar/Burma, in September 2013.

By Bian Elkatib and Nikita Mandhani

T

he Rohingyas are a primarily Muslim ethnic minority group from Burma, a country in Southeast Asia that is also known as Myanmar.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, media coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis has been scarce.

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The migration of Rohingyas from Myanmar and Bangladesh is “described as the biggest mass exodus since the Vietnam War” in the UNHCR’s study guide on the Rohingyas.

Their plight has captured the attention of President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Photo at top: This temporary clinic provides some 13,000 Rohingya with basic health care two days per week. (Mathias Eick/EU/ECHO)