Re-Asserting Control: Voluntary Return, Restitution and the Right to Land for IDPs and Refugees in Myanmar
Publisher: Transnational Institute
Date: 2017
Topics: Humanitarian Assistance, Land, Livelihoods
Countries: Myanmar
After decades of civil war and ethnic conflict, large numbers of nationality people in Myanmar have been displaced. In the ethnic states bordering Thailand, Laos, China, India and Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of people have fled fighting between the Tatmadaw (national armed forces) and various ethnic armed groups. Military campaigns by the Tatmadaw directly targeting civilians have especially contributed to this. While some fleeing conflict have found refuge in camps in neighbouring countries, the majority have become internally displaced inside the country. In the western part of Myanmar adjoining Bangladesh, a large number of Muslims, many of who self-identify as ‘Rohingya’, have also fled religious persecution, communal violence and, more recently, heavy-handed responses by the Myanmar security apparatus to a new Islamic insurgency. Although exact numbers are not available, and these also change regularly as the conflict is dynamic, currently at least 1.1 million people from Myanmar are either internally displaced or live in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.1 This figure does not include the many other inhabitants from the border regions who have become migrant workers in Thailand, Malaysia and other countries, due to a combination of war, oppression and related lack of opportunities to live a life in dignity.