Rejected by the country they call home and unwanted by its neighbours, the Rohingya are impoverished, virtually stateless and have been fleeing Myanmar in droves and for decades.
In recent months, tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh amid a military crackdown on insurgents in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
They have told horrifying stories of rapes, killings and house burnings, which the government of Myanmar - formerly Burma - has claimed are "false" and "distorted".
Activists have condemned the lack of a firm international response. Some have described the situation as South East Asia's Srebrenica, referring to the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were meant to be under UN protection - a dark stain on Europe's human rights record.
What's happening?
Tun Khin, from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, says Rohingyas are suffering "mass atrocities" perpetrated by security forces in the northern part of Rakhine state.
A counter-insurgency campaign was launched after nine border policemen near Maungdaw were killed in a militant attack in early October, but the Rohingya say they are being targeted indiscriminately.
What led to the current situation?
The Rohingya are one of Myanmar's many ethnic minorities and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.
But Myanmar's government denies them citizenship and sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - a common attitude among many Burmese.
The predominantly Buddhist country has a long history of communal mistrust, which was allowed to simmer, and was at times exploited, under decades of military rule.
Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?
Since a dramatic Rohingya exodus from Myanmar in 2015, the political party of Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has taken power in a historic election, the first to be openly contested in 25 years.
But little has changed for the Rohingya and Ms Suu Kyi's failure to condemn the current violence is an outrage, say some observers.
"I'm not saying there are no difficulties,'' she told Singapore's Channel NewsAsia in December. "But it helps if people recognise the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.''
Her failure to defend the Rohingya is extremely disappointing, said Tun Khin, who for years had supported her democracy activism.
The question of whether she has much leverage over the military - which still wields great power and controls the most powerful ministries - is a separate one, he said.
"The point is that Aung San Suu Kyi is covering up this crime perpetrated by the military."
Will Myanmar's neighbours help?
South East Asian countries generally don't criticise each other about their internal affairs. It's a key principle of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
But the current situation has seen some strident criticism from Myanmar's Muslim-majority neighbours, along with protests. Indonesian police even say they have foiled an IS-linked bomb plot targeting the Myanmar embassy.
On 4 December, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak questioned Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize, given her inaction.
"The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place. The world cannot just say 'look, it is not our problem'. It is our problem," he told thousands at a rally in Kuala Lumpur in support of the Rohingya.
His comments followed a call from Malaysia's youth and sports minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, for Asean to review Myanmar's membership over the "unacceptable" violence.
Some question the timing of the comments, given the unpopular Mr Razak is gearing up for re-election.
"What we want is both talk and action to really help the Rohingya, not just ministers posturing to gain domestic political points," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
In Bangladesh, which borders Rakhine state, Amnesty International says hundreds of fleeing Rohingya have been detained and forcibly returned to an uncertain fate since October - a practice it says should end. Bangladesh does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees.
What is the UN doing?
A UN spokeswoman in 2009 described the Rohingya as "probably the most friendless people in the world".
The UN human rights office recently said for a second time this year that abuses suffered by them could amount to crimes against humanity. It also said that it regretted that the government had failed to act on a number of recommendations it had provided, including lifting restrictions of movement on the Rohingya.
It has called for an investigation into the recent allegations of rights abuses, as well as for humanitarian access to be given