l. Background The Rohingya, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, had a presence in what is now Myanmar since the 12‘ century, but the current government claims they migrated there illegally during the period of British colonial control from 1824 to the 1940s.5 After Myanmar’s independence in 1948, the Rohingya’s ancestral homeland of Arakan became Arakan State, in western Myanmar, and was renamed Rakhine State in 1990.° The democratic Burmese government recognized the Rohingya as a national ethnic minority until a military coup in 1962. Under the 1982 Nationality Act, Burma’s military rulers effectively revoked the nationality of the Rohingya, rendering them one of the largest stateless groups in the world. Members of the Rohingya ethnic group have suffered discrimination and persecution from Myanmar authorities for generations, including in accessing education.” Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh before August 2017 Rohingya have been present since at least the 18 century in Cox’s Bazar, the southeastern district of Bangladesh where the refugee camps are currently located. The district was named for the colonial military official sent by the British East India Company to deal with the refugees who fled there after a Burman king conquered Arakan in 1784.8 More Arakanese refugees fled to the area in the early 19th century, and again following intercommunal violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists in the 1940s.9 5 Human Rights Watch, Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh: Still No Durable Solution, May 2000, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burmoos-o1.htm, Chapter 2. 6 UNHCR, States of Denial: A review of UNHCR’s response to the protracted situation of stateless Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, December 2011, p.1, https://www.unhcr.org/4ee754¢19.pdf (accessed June 2, 2019); U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Burma [Myanmar]: Information on the situation of Rohingyas, March 28, 2001, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3deccd7a4.html (accessed November 1, 2019). 7 Human Rights Watch, Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh; and Human Rights Watch, Living in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia, August 2000, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/malaysia/maybroo8-o01.htm. Chapter 3. 8 G.E. Harvey, History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest (London: Longmans, Green and Co.), 1925, p. 282; Tim Steel, “The legacy of Hiram Cox,” Dhaka Tribune, February 19, 2016, https://www.dhakatribune.com/uncategorized/2016/02/19/the-legacy-of-hiram-cox (accessed June 1, 2019). 9 Maung Htin Aung, A History of Burma (New York and London: Columbia University Press), 1967, p. 206. 19 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2019