Noor Islam, 21, allegedly set fire to himself inside a bank just outside Melbourne on Friday morning, injuring 26 other people.
While Australians wait for Islam to recover from his injuries so police can interview him, some are wondering about the origins of the asylum-seeker whose actions prompted an emergency response of the highest level.
The day after the incident, the Australian newspaper The Age published a report titled “Springvale arson suspect explainer: Who are the Rohingya?”
The piece explains that the Rohingya are a Muslim minority in Rakhine State who are denied citizenship and basic human rights and who are considered by most Burmese people to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. It also mentions the recent violence in Rakhine State and the military lockdown that is preventing aid and independent reporting on the situation there.
The authors also point out that there are relatively few Rohingya refugees in Australia. This they attribute to the blocking of a 2011 deal between Malaysia and the then-Labor government that would have brought 4,000 refugees from Malaysia to Australia, most of whom were Rohingya.
The authors also remind us that Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s infamous “nope, nope, nope” line came after he was asked if Australia would accept any Rohingya refugees during last year’s migrant crisis.
The Turnbull government has remained firm in its refusal to consider any refugee who wishes to be resettled in Australia if they registered with the UNHCR in Indonesia after July 2014, The Age reports.
The explainer quotes Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokesman Kon Karapanagiotidis as saying:
“Scapegoating refugees now as an excuse to justify fear and racism would make an already awful situation much more tragic. The people we work with are people who are fleeing violence. [They] are incredibly law-abiding and peaceful people, and one person does not speak for anyone but himself.”
However, the piece does not mention much about Islam’s personal background.
Habib Habib, the president of the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation, told the Guardian that Islam is a Rohingya asylum-seeker who was “struggling mentally” after several failed attempts to send money to his mother and sister in Rakhine State through the Australian Department of Human Services. He was also forbidden from working under his bridging visa. Habib, who had spoken with Islam’s housemates in Springvale, said Islam only intended to harm himself.
