Rohingya refugees in Pakistan

Rohingya people in Pakistan
Total population
200,000[1][2]–400,000[3]
Regions with significant populations
Karachi
Languages
Rohingya · Burmese · Chittagonian · Urdu · English and other Myanmar languages
Religion
Related ethnic groups
Burmese diaspora

Rohingya people in Pakistan (Urdu: پاکستانی برمی) are a community based in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. They are Rohingya Muslims (Urdu: روہنگیا مسلمان), an ethnic group native to Rakhine State, Myanmar (also known as Arakan, Burma), who have fled their homeland because of the persecution of Muslims by the Burmese government and Buddhist majority.[4] According to varied Pakistani government sources and the Arakan Historical Society, there are some 200,000 Rohingya refugees residing in Pakistan.[1][2] All of them have made a perilous journey across Bangladesh and India and have settled in Karachi. A report on human trafficking stated that Burmese people make up fourteen per cent of Karachi's undocumented immigrants.[5] Large scale Rohingya migration to Karachi made Karachi one of the largest population centres of Rohingyas in the world after Myanmar.[6] In the recent years, scores of Burmese women seeking employment have entered the country. Different resources cite the number of these women to be in the thousands.[7]

Rohingyas and Bengalis in Karachi

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According to community leaders and social scientists, there are over 1.6 million Bengalis and up to 400,000 Rohingyas living in Karachi.[3] There are numerous Burmese housing colonies that can be found throughout Karachi. Traditionally, cultural similarities of the Rohingya people to those of Bengalis has enabled easier communication and interaction of the Burmese in Karachi with the Bengali community. Their native Rohingya language furthermore has dialect familiarities especially with the Bangladeshi natives hailing from Chittagong, who speak a somewhat indistinct Chittagonian language. As a result of the great inter-ethnic engagement, the Burmese people in Pakistan have a special reputation for being found in areas only that traditionally also contain a Bengali population. With more stringent control and difficulty in traversing borders the Burmese have now started travelling east to countries closer to Myanmar such as Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Malaysia. The number of Rohingya Burmese in Pakistan has been on the decline in recent years.

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Mahmud, Arshad; Owais Tohid (29 November 1995). "Homeless in Karachi". Outlook India. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013.
  2. ^ a b Sajjad, Tazreena (17 July 2003). "SRI On-Site Action Alert: Rohingya Refugees of Burma and UNHCR's repatriation program". burmalibrary.org. Archived from the original on 26 March 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  3. ^ a b Rehman, Zia Ur (9 August 2015). "Bengali and Rohingya leaders gearing up for LG polls". thenews.com.pk. Karachi. Archived from the original on 14 August 2015.
  4. ^ Flood, Derek Henry (12 May 2008). "From South to South: Refugees as Migrants: The Rohingya in Pakistan". The Huffington Post.
  5. ^ Hughes, Donna M.; Laura Joy Sporcic; Nadine Z. Mendelsohn; Vanessa Chirgwin (1999). "Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation: Pakistan: Trafficking". University of Rhode Island, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Archived from the original on 23 May 2010.
  6. ^ Rehman, Zia Ur (23 February 2015). "Identity issue haunts Karachi's Rohingya population". Dawn. Their large-scale migration had made Karachi one of the largest Rohingya population centres outside Myanmar but afterwards the situation started turning against them.
  7. ^ Latif, Aamir (24 June 2007). "Immigrant Dream Shattered in Karachi". Islam Online. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  8. ^ Saleem, Samia (7 July 2011). "You wouldn't want to pick a fight with 'Grand Master' Ashraf Tai's family". Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
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