Genocide, exodus and exploitation for jihad: the urgent need to address the Rohingya crisis

The Rohingya people represent an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, where the main causes for the greatest regional exodus in contemporary Southeast Asia originate. Suffering from various kinds of state persecutions and discrimination by society in general, Rohingya are often forced to flee their homes. This situation is worsened by the fact that most of the potential host states in the region are not able to take care of all the refugees and/ or are not willing to accept further waves of immigration. Moreover, regional governments start to identify Rohingya not as a sole humanitarian and refugee issue, but rather as a threat towards internal security and as a critical determinant in international relations and regional cooperation. Today, the Rohingya population is one of the most oppressed groups in the world. This paper argues that the dramatic dimension of the Rohingya’s refugee crisis is a clear result of several intermingling factors which are deeply embedded in negative historical trajectories enforced by contemporary unfortunate circumstances. In general terms, the Rohingya crisis is a politically and economically driven religious conflict. Following this rationale, it is considered that the vulnerable situation of the forcefully displaced persons is getting increasingly exploited by local and global acting jihadist groups trying to destabilise the region by hijacking the cause of Rohingya