Stateless struggles: Examining the chin refugee crisis through legal and humanitarian lens

The Chin refugeecrisis epitomizes the moral and legal challenges of contemporary forceddisplacement. Globalisation hasmeant the gradual loosening up of erected boundaries across the globe, freemovement of people, goods, ideas and even money have been a crucial marker ofglobalisation; but this movement has also meant starting of cultural wars,conflicts, to exploitation of workers, global inequality in the so-called‘developing world’. All these problems, however, find a common link in thisbeing human rights, rights that are accorded to humans on the merit that theyare human beings, and not because of their race, gender, caste, creed,ethnicity, or nationality. In a globalisedworld order where the ideals of social and political inclusivity are being putforward, certain regions of the world are overrun by ethnic state-sponsoredviolence and gross human rights violations. Myanmar is one such country. TheChin people are an ethnic minority residing in Chin State, located in thewestern region of Myanmar. It is an isolated, neglected hilly region withinadequate infrastructural facilities, thus making it one of the mostunderdeveloped states. With a population of less than five lakhs, it has beenthe battleground between the rebels fighting the Military Junta. The result ofthis conflict has been a massive Human Rights disaster, with civilians beingkilled in their own homes and entire villages being wiped out. In this paper,several policy solutions have been explored as to how the situation in Myanmarcan be de-escalated and made to align with social inclusivity and how theBurmese refugees can be accommodated in their homeland, so that they do nothave to wander in neighbouring countries like India and Malaysia, in search ofsafe haven. To tackle the Human Rights situation in Burma, solutions like a‘Peacekeeping Force’ as ‘Observers’ to ensure that the rights of civilians arenot jeopardised in the conflict. Also, it's proposedto create ‘Humanitarian Buffer Zones’ which would be enforced by a neutralthird party and ensure that the civilians are left out of the conflict and arenot caught in the crossfire between the rebel and the state. ‘Foreignintervention with gradual phasing out of the military junta’. As an alternativepolitical structure, a ‘Federal Structure with Balanced Autonomy’ given to theprovinces to manage ethnic tensions.