Joint Submission on trafficking in persons and international protection of refugees, stateless persons and internally displaced persons (IDPs): Stateless Rohingya refugees and IDPs in Asia-Pacific Introduction 1. Rohingya Women Development Network (RWDN), Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC), the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and three independent Rohingya and Burmese women researchers, Raziya Sultana, Halima Akter, and Kathy Win, make this joint submission to the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. 2. Rohingya Women Development Network (RWDN) is a Rohingya women-led community organisation based in Malaysia that works to strengthen and develop Rohingya communities through advocacy, education and training. Their work includes supporting survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence. Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) is a global network of Rohingya activists and friends of Rohingya who share common concerns about the on-going genocide and the need for Rohingya survivors to play an active role in seeking a viable future for their group. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) is the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to working on statelessness at the global level. 3. This submission focuses on the risks of trafficking and protection of stateless Rohingya refugees and IDPs. Specifically, it considers the following areas in the Special Rapporteur’s call for information: statelessness and the nexus with trafficking in persons for all purposes of exploitation; prevention of trafficking in persons among refugees, IDPs and stateless persons with a focus on socio-economic rights, movement restrictions and other risk factors; trafficking in persons for all purposes of exploitation as a form of persecution; identification and protection of refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons who are victims of trafficking; non-refoulement obligations; detention and non-penalisation of refugee, asylum-seeker and stateless victims of trafficking. 4. This submission draws on the experiences of Rohingya practitioners, and activists working to protect survivors and/or prevent trafficking in communities with high risks and prevalence of trafficking. This includes those working in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Myanmar. Additionally, it draws on data from the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion’s Rohingya research projects including human rights research conducted in four different regions of Rakhine State over a period of nine months in 2022, and qualitative research including semi-structured interviews with key informants including Rohingya women and community workers and leaders in Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2022 and 2023. Background: Rohingya and the nexus between statelessness, forced displacement, and trafficking in persons. 5. Rohingya communities have been arbitrarily deprived of their nationality and persecuted in Myanmar, while also being denied adequate protection as refugees and

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