Who are 'the most unwanted people on the planet'?

Today Amnesty International released a report card on how the world is doing when it comes to protecting human rights.

The picture ain't too bright, as Claire Mallinson, National Director of Amnesty in Australia told Hack.

"We estimate that in at least 23 countries, war crimes have taken place. Not just in Syria, as we see on our TV," she said. "Sadly world leaders, rather than stepping up as they did during the Global Financial Crisis... lots of them have turned their backs."

One of the places that caused a red flag for Amnesty was Myanmar (formerly called Burma.) The government and military's treatment of its Muslim minority, called Rohingya, has declined in recent years.

Who are the Rohingya people?

At 19, Habib Habiburahman made the life-changing decision to leave his family and cross the border into Thailand.

Many Rohingyas live in Rakhine state.

Source: Supplied

He'd been studying electrical engineering at uni, but he'd had to lie to do it. As a member of the Rohingya people, Habib wasn't allowed to go to uni.

His people don't have freedom of movement and they can't marry without authority. They aren't recognised as citizens of Myanmar, so they can't have passports or other official documents.

They're stateless.

In fact, they have been labelled the most persecuted minority in the world.

Claire Mallinson said their situation is worsening.

Myanmar is a country of over 51 million people, and the vast majority of them are Buddhist. Religious freedom is written into the constitution, but in practice the Muslim Rohingyas (most of whom reside in Rakhine, where Habib is from) are persecuted and abused.

From military rule to democracy

Myanmar itself has had a chequered history. It was a British colony, and in 1962 the military took over in a coup de tat. Democracy was suppressed, and resistance leader Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest for 15 out of 21 years, making her one of the most prominent political prisoners of all time.

But that changed when the military junta officially dissolved in 2011.

Aung San Suu Kyi became a democratically-elected politician - taking on the foreign affairs portfolio.

But she's remained quiet on the plight of the Rohingya.

The Amnesty report shows that despite democratic reforms in Myanmar, the Rohingyas face a growing risk of violence and discrimination.

"Aung San Suu Kyi doesn't have control of the military," Claire said. "But what's been very disappointing is that she hasn't called the situation out."

The report itself lists a number of issues that the Rohingya face in Myanmar.

"The government increased restrictions on access for UN and other humanitarian agencies to displaced communities," the report said. "Although scores of prisoners of conscience were released, restrictions on freedoms of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly remained."

Kind of like what Habib went through.

Habib has told Hack that in Rakhine state his people were subjected to human rights abuses.

"Once the authority comes to the village... they will threaten people with guns. They will separate the men and women and start abusing them," he said.

"Sexual harassment and sexual abuse. The men will be taken away - over 13 or over 12 [of age] they will be dragged away and they will be beaten," he said.

"The authorities, the Government, they're openly allowing to do things to Rohingya in this way," Habib said. "They don't even think [of] the Rohingya as human."

'Ethnic cleansing'

Thousands of Rohingya people decided to leave Myanmar, crossing the border into neighbouring Bangladesh. But the crisis is so bad that Bangladesh - a relatively poor country - can't give them refugee status there, either. So they languish in refugee camps at the border.

Nearly 65,000 have fled Myanmar since October - and that's on top of the more than 232,000 Rohingyas already in Bangladesh.

The United Nations has described what's happening to the Rohingya people as ethnic cleansing.

"The government of Myanmar has pushed them out, until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," John McKissick from the UN's refugee agency,the UNHCR, said.

Claire outlined some of the atrocities that Amnesty had documented.

"When you hear stories of gang rapes, of pregnant women having their stomach stamped on by the military, we're the stage where there has to be that independent investigation," she said.

But ethnic cleansing is not a description Aung San Suu Kyi will accept.

"No no, it's not ethnic cleansing, it's a new problem that's linked to an old problem as well," she told the BBC in 2013.

"This is due to fear, and that's what the world needs to understand. And the fear isn't just on the side of the Muslims, it's on the side of the Buddhists as well," she said.

Australia urges action

Myanmar's government doesn't let international reporters into the area, and aid workers and UN officials are also barred.

Which means it's pretty hard to gauge exactly what's going on there.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, wants Myanmar to do more to help the Rohingya.

"I have expressed my concerns about the situation in Rakhine state to Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi," she said in a written statement issued to Hack.

"The Australian Government remains committed to working with Myanmar and development partners to address complex humanitarian and development challenges, with over $40 million going to Rakhine State or Rohingya refugees since 2012," Minister Bishop said.

Rohingyas in Australia

In fact, there aren't that many Rohingyas living in Australia.

Claire reckons only 37 refugees have been resettled here in the last few years, and she said there are a few more on Manus Island and Nauru, too.

According to the most recent stats put out by Border Force, there are 57 people in all Australian immigration detention centres (including the onshore ones for visa overstayers and the like) who are stateless. It's unclear how many of them are Rohingya.

Habib's been in Australia for a few years now.

He paid a people smuggler to get him here, after living in fear in Malaysia for nearly a decade. In that time he was arrested and detained several times, and was deported back to the Thai-Myanmar border on a few occasions.

For him, Australia was a sanctuary.

He's worried about his mum and sister, though.

They tried to escape Myanmar a few times, but have never made it. His sister was caught during one attempt and sent to jail for a year.

They're now living in what Habib describes as "internment camps" in the middle of Myanmar.