The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority. There are an estimated 3.5 million Rohingya in the world. Most of the Rohingya live in Asia, specifically in Myanmar.

The government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship, and as a result, most of the group’s members have no legal documentation, effectively making them stateless. To complicate matters, President Thein Sein canceled temporary identity cards for the Rohingya in 2015, effectively revoking their newly gained right to vote.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the violence against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, and he called the humanitarian situation for the Rohingya catastrophic. The Rohingya are migrating in mass movements to the countries of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

In their journeys for permanent resettlement in another nation, it is essential that the United Nations and specifically the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees support the Rohingya. The Rohingya deserved to be recognized as an important group of people who have basic human rights. 

Please consider signing and sharing this petition to pressure to the UN and the UNHCR to take immediate action to provide aid to the Rohingya refugees.

If you wish to donate to the cause, please visit https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=5522 

All background information on this crisis is from the Council on Foreign Relations.