Since the Rohingya lost citizenship the Rohingya Muslims in Burma's western Rakhine province has been exposed to something resembling ethnic cleansing. In June 2012 140,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes in the main city, Sittwe, several thousand Muslim houses was burnt down and more than 200 people were killed by the military and police as they tried to save their homes.
The Rohingya in Burma now live in government-controlled camps for internally displaced people just a few kilometers from their former homes. The camps are like prisons, they can not go outside the camps and are cut of from the outside world. The children can not go to school, and very little aid is offered.
Their only way of escape is the Bay Of Bengal in homemade boats. The most obvious place to go is Bangladesh. But there is already many Rohingya there and the country has other problems. Therefore the Rohingya risk that the military and police literally pushes the boats out to sea again. Those who flee Burma now, go to Malaysia or Thailand. A journey of more than 2,000 kilometers.