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Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 ethnic groups, has attracted the interests of humanitarians following spats of conflicts targeting a specific ethnic minority called Rohingya. The community of Rohingya Muslims, who make up the largest Muslim community in Myanmar, have been the target of the country’s military forces that torched homes, tortured, and killed Rohingya people in the Rakhine state. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a humanitarian crisis is looming as many Afghans, especially women, are escaping the terror under the Taliban government. These crises draw attention to the role of social workers working with refugee families to help them find comfort and start new lives in host nations.
Religion: Divisive yet Uniting
Religion is a crucial aspect of culture; hence it can unite or divide people. It is divisive in the sense that religious practices are unique in terms of shared beliefs and practices among adherents. For instance, those practicing Buddhism may have different or contradictory practices from Christians and Muslims. If people fail to understand, appreciate, and respect the religious values and practices of others, such differences can be a source of conflict.
Religion unites many, especially those with similar moral codes, practices, and beliefs. For instance, despite being split into different denominations, Christians share solidarity regardless of where they are worldwide. The adherents of other religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions or beliefs, have the same solidarity. Indeed, during the military crackdown on the Rohingya people in 2017, Bangladesh, largely a Muslim country, became a haven for the persecuted Rohingya Muslims (VICE News, 2020). The sense of solidarity with fellow Muslims made Bangladesh more willing to offer refuge to Rohingya Muslims. In such instances, religion appears to be uniting rather than divisive.
What Social Work Needs to Do to Work with Refugee Families
Many people flee the conflict zone when clashes begin, resulting in an influx of refugees and asylum seekers in other countries. During the Afghanistan conflict, many people became refugees in the United States. The Taliban group that the US forces fought against for decades has seized power in Afghanistan, threatening human rights. Social workers should understand how immigrants’ legal and social statuses impact service provision to work with refugee families. Further, they need to leverage their cultural competence and social work expertise to intervene and solicit relevant social and humanitarian services for the refugee families.
First, a social worker needs to understand how the US immigration policy affects the status of an Afghan refugee. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (Viola et al., 2018), refugee families face unique challenges associated with immigration policies. Hence, NASW recognizes that social workers should consider immigration policies in their intervention work, as these policies will ultimately determine the access to social service provisions. Considering the significance of social services on the well-being of refugee families, social workers must ensure that existing policies support their intervention plans or programs. The policies should guarantee the families access to a wide range of services and opportunities to improve their comfort in a foreign land.
Second, refugees from Afghanistan are from different cultural and religious backgrounds, which means that a social worker intervening for these families must be culturally competent or seek the help of other experts, including translators. For instance, most Afghans are Muslims, which indicates that social workers must work under their high-context culture where everything communicated does not have to be explicit (Nakhaie, 2018). For instance, Muslims value family affairs over individual needs, impacting their interpretation of individual rights versus family privacy. A culturally competent social worker understands that any intervention must be done in consultation with the family and should establish a consensus.
In addition, a social worker intervening for refugee families from Afghanistan must solicit relevant humanitarian services, most notably, food, shelter, and social support. After traveling long distances and arriving at the refugee camps, most refugee families need a place to call home, a roof over them, and food (Nakhaie, 2018). These are basic human needs that must be available to all refugee families. A social worker needs to ensure the availability of such basic needs, alongside social support and expert intervention from psychological therapists to address the mental health needs of refugee families.
The Rohingya Genocide
The military crackdown on the Rohingya people began in August 2017 following several years of activism by the community to be recognized as citizens of Myanmar. It started as a government operation against the Rohingya militant group but became a military offensive that did not discriminate between civilians and the militants (Geography Now, 2019). Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people were forced to flee by risking their lives in the sea or crossing the border into Bangladesh by foot. When Myanmar conducted a census in 2014, it did not include the Rohingya people, which led to the emergence of the militant group and the insurgency (Geography Now, 2019). The refusal to recognize Rohingya as a people and part of Myanmar society paved the way for ethnic cleansing, which was sanctioned by the Myanmar government that gave its army the mandate to attack and torch Rakhine villages inhabited by the ethnic minority. As a result of the crackdown, Head (2019) notes that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, causing a refugee crisis in the region. Denied citizenship and eventually evicted from their villages, Rohingya are certainly one of the most discriminated ethnic groups.
Details of the Genocide
Whereas the government of Aung San Suu Kyi has denied allegations of genocide against the Rohingya people, many human rights activists and organizations have termed the execution as genocidal, which is true. According to Anwary (2019), genocide is the targeted killing of a race or group of people based on a collective identity. Myanmar constructed a collective identity of Rohingya as illegal migrants and used its military to launch a sustained attack on the community that led to mass killings and exodus (Anwary, 2019). An analysis of satellite images by the Human Rights Watch indicates that 288 villages inhabited by Rohingya were either partially or completely destroyed by fire in the Rakhine state (VICE News, 2020). Besides, the above satellite image analysis showed that villages neighboring the torched ones remained intact. In addition, even if Rohingya people want to return to Myanmar, they will not find a place to live because their villages now have government facilities (Head, 2019). In summary, the killing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar amounts to genocide.
News Article about the Recent Happenings in Rohingya
Recently, Katie Hatdash wrote an article in The Diplomat highlighting not only the precarious conditions under which Rohingya people live, but also the dilemma the host nation, Bangladesh, faces in the wake of the harsh reality of the inability of the refugees to return to Myanmar. According to the article, the Bangladeshi government has resorted to coercive tactics to force Rohingya to return to their villages in Myanmar (Hatdash, 2022). However, Rohingya people’s chances of returning to Rakhine are almost nonexistent. The once inhabited Rohingya villages have been turned into police barracks, government establishments, and refugee relocation camps. The development eliminates any chance that Rohingya will find a place to settle when they return to Myanmar. Besides, the Rohingya community has faced several decades of persecution, and even the recent developments, including coup attempts in Myanmar, create an unstable political environment for their return. In this regard, the author of the abovementioned article is right to criticize the Bangladeshi government’s attempt to coerce Rohingya to return to Myanmar.
Resultant Trauma
Ultimately, all the developments above lead to a traumatizing experience for all the Rohingya people. First, their sources of livelihood have been destroyed, as they can no longer do their farming or engage in other income-generating activities to sustain their families (Anwary, 2019). They have become dependants, a traumatizing lifestyle for most of them who could fend for themselves. Besides, they are unlikely to return home, which is traumatizing because their citizenship is not guaranteed in the hosting state (Head, 2019). Finally, some have lost their loved ones or been separated from their families and friends, perhaps for eternity.
Conclusion
The increasing global political instability is creating a refugee crisis that requires the intervention of humanitarians, including social workers. The Rohingya genocide reveals the divisive nature of religion, especially due to religious intolerance. On the other hand, the mass exodus of Afghans, especially women, from their country under the Taliban rule points to how religion can be used to justify gender-based discrimination. Social workers intervening for Afghan refugee families should not only consider the families’ immediate needs, such as food and shelter, but also their traumatic experiences. Such traumatic experiences are common among those whose rights are violated in one way or another.
References
Anwary, A. (2019). Interethnic conflict and genocide in Myanmar.Homicide Studies, 24(1), 85-102. Web.
Geography Now. (2019). Myanmar: The Rohingya crisis explained [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Hatdash, K. (2022). Why is Bangladesh encouraging Rohingya refugees to start a ‘Going Home’ campaign?The Diplomat. Web.
Head, J. (2019). Rohingya crisis: Villages destroyed for government facilities. BBC News. Web.
Nakhaie, M. R. (2018). Service needs of immigrants and refugees.Journal of International Migration and Integration, 19(1), 143-160. Web.
VICE News. (2020). Myanmar’s Rohingya genocide. [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Viola, E., Biondo, E., & Mosso, C. O. (2018). The role of social workers in promoting immigrants’ integration.Social Work in Public Health, 33(7-8), 483-496. Web.
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