Not welcome anywhere

Rohingya are Muslim outcasts

For generations, the ethnic Muslim Rohingya have endured persecution by the ruling junta of Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country.

The plight of the Rohingya, descendants of Arab traders from the 7th century, gained international attention over the past month after five boatloads of haggard migrants were found in the waters around Indonesia and the Andaman Islands.
But unlike the Kurds or the Palestinians, no one has championed the cause of the Rohingya.
Most countries, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, see them as little more than a source of cheap labor for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.

"The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all," said Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
"Hardly any of them have legal status anywhere in the world."

There are an estimated 750,000 Rohingya living in Burma's mountainous northern state of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh.
Thousands flee every year, trying to escape a life of abuse that was codified in 1982 with a law that virtually bars them from becoming citizens.