facilitating the movement of people. Further, there is a strong link between the deprivation of Rohingyas’ citizenship in Myanmar and the denial of the right of return. Since the 1990s, those that leave the country are struck from the household registers, effectively erasing their permanent residence.17 Thus, a move out of the country, in most cases, is permanent. Many are concerned that the facilitation of travel out of the country assists broader strategies to remove Rohingya from Rakhine State, and at the same time generates revenue for state and quasi state authorities. “They (Arakan Army) do not want Rohingya in Rakhine and they cannot drive us out. So, many people feel that is why they are helping those human smugglers if the Rohingya want to go outside.” Rohingya man, Buthidaung18 19. The treatment of Rohingyas on route through Myanmar is also understood by many as a form of persecution due to their ethnicity, religion and lack of legal status. Rohingya researchers estimate that only approximately 20% of Rohingyas attempting to leave Bangladesh or Rakhine across land for Malaysia or elsewhere in Southeast Asia make it as far as the Thai-Myanmar border. Many are either abandoned by brokers or arrested on route. There are more than 3000 Rohingyas in detention in Myanmar due to attempting these routes. Approximately 700 have been charged and sentenced under the immigration rules, receiving sentences of 2-5 years. Those who travel from Bangladesh usually receive the longer sentences as they are charged with crossing an international border illegally. 20. There are widespread reports of torture and ill-treatment in prisons and youth detention centres. CJ Platform, a grassroots media outlet, reported that over 300 young women are detained at the Youth Correctional Training Centre of Women’s Care and Development Centre in Twande Township, Yangon. They reported that on 8th February 2023, staff at the training centre took 20 young Rohingya women from their dormitory and forced them to strip naked in a public area visible from the centres gate. They were then made to kneel on stones as a form of punishment. 21. According to community members’ testimonies, civil society actors and media outlets, arrivals in Malaysia are held indefinitely in overcrowded and unhygienic detention centres, with no access to adequate food and healthcare, UNHCR services and refugee status, no identification of trafficking victims and no support services except those provided on ad-hoc basis by members of the Rohingya community.19 In April 2022, 528 members of the Rohingya community attempted to escape a detention center in Kedah, Malaysia, leading to a hunt down mission from the immigration authorities and the death of six individuals including two children in a road accident while fleeing.20 22. On 5th December 2022, 13 Rohingya dead bodies were found on the roadside close to Yangon. The bodies were photographed and bore the signs of severe beatings and torture. The victims had reportedly been abducted while attempting to travel to Southeast Asia by a Buddhist ultranationalist militia group connected to the military 17 Supra note 3 Quote taken from ISI’s Dangerous Journeys report, supra note 3 19 Supra note 7 20 Free Malaysia Today, 6 of 528 Rohingya detainees fleeing immigration depot die in accident, 2022, Available at: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2022/04/20/528-rohingya-detainees-escape-from-sungai-bakapimmigration-depot/, [accessed 28 February 2023] 18 6

Select target paragraph3