Who are the Rohingya refugees and what is the background behind the recent events involving them?

About this, as a native let me drop some "not-that-well-known" information about the situation.

Now, this might sound strange but the reason why the government doesn't want to integrate the Rohyingyas back into the country might be because of the people themselves. A lot of the Burmese people actually despise the Rohyingyas. Think of the red scare in America. Let me explain more about why the Burmese people hate the Rohyingyas.

The hatred of the Rohyingyas stems down to the fact that many Burmese people believe that the Rohyingyas were actually Muslim Bengals by the British as indented laborers and were never native to the country. The British retreated to India and left the Bengals behind (Note that the current time is 1942). Now, here's something important to note. They (the British) supplied weapons to Rohyingya locals in northern Arakan in the hopes that it'll create a buffer zone from the Japanese invasion. Instead, the Rohyingyas tried to destroy the collaborationist Arakanese villages instead of resisting the Japanese; committing a massacre of 50 thousand people. If anything, this is one of the biggest reason of the hatred of Rohyingyas. Coupled with this belief and the "rise" of terrorism (9/11, Al Qaeda, ISIS) a lot of Burmese people despise and hate Muslims.

Now, remember when I said how the situation is similar to the Red Scare of America? At the time, imagine if the Government of USA were to announce that communists are equal and possesses no threat to the country. Think of how people would react. Similarly, this is what's going on in Myanmar. If the government were to reintegrate Rohyingyas back into the country, there would be a huge uproar from the people and the already tarnished reputation of the Government will go down even further.

If you're more curious about the situation, I highly recommend you check these references out.

/r/OutOfTheLoop Thread Parent