Rohingya

While media reports indicate that the recent crackdown includes Rohingya Muslims living in other states too, the situation is particularly tense and complex in Assam, where issues of citizenship and ethnic identity have long dominated politics.

In Asia, the end of U.S.A.I.D. support forced the World Food Program to cut by half the already stringent food rations being provided to the million Rohingya refugees confined in miserable, muddy camps in Bangladesh — forcing them to survive on just $6.00 a month per person.

Eventually the ban is lifted, but Facebook becomes the carrier of hate speech directed at the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority — theoretically in violation of the company’s touted community standards.

More than one million Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority community that the United Nations calls victims of ethnic cleansing, fled violent purges in their home country, neighbouring Myanmar.

Unable to go back home and unable to work outside the refugee camp, the Rohingya depend on international aid for their survival.