facilities without proper access to privacy, basic healthcare, and adequate nutrition.27 The centers continue to risk the refugees with malnutrition, preventable illnesses, as well as severe mental and psychosocial illnesses. In Thailand, reports of detention facilities imprisoning hundreds of Rohingya – at least 600 according to WPN’s sources – without access to UNCHR or its refugee status determinations have emerged.28 In India, over 500 Rohingya refugees, of whom more than half are women and children, are being detained in overcrowded cells without proper access to education, healthcare, food, clean water, and even sunlight; Rohingya refugee children reportedly are also being forcibly separated from their parents.29 At the same time, Rohingya refugees remain denied access to legal and justice services in their host countries in South and Southeast Asia. Access to any form of legal aid would demonstrably assist an at-risk individual’s case, particularly relating to their legal status in a country with laws, systems, and languages that are unique to its jurisdiction. Without expert access to legal knowledge, or any opportunity to learn it, Rohingya refugees are thus comprehensively stripped of their ability to advocate for their asylum, and protect themselves. In such an environment, the detention of Rohingya refugees, among other factors, make their forcible deportation to Myanmar more likely. This was demonstrated by the case of the 154 Rohingya refugees who were rescued by a Vietnamese oil service vessel in December 2022 and left in its enclosed spaces, then – against their will – forcibly transfered to the Burmese military’s navy, and sentenced to two-to-three years in arbitrary detention by the junta.30 In Malaysia, detained Rohingya fear deportation following the deportation of over 2,000 Myanmar nationals since April 2022 – including 114 “Myanmar Muslim nationals” in 27 “Impact of Prolonged Immigration Detention on Rohingya Families and Communities in Malaysia,” “Protecting Rohingya Refugees in Asia” project, May 2023, https://idcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IDC-X-DRC-Research-Report-Impact-of-Detention-Final-English .pdf; Mohd Iskandar Ibrahim, “Immigration to split up Rohingya population in detention centers as they are ‘aggresive’,” New Straits Times, February 2, 2024, https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/02/1009116/immigration-split-rohingya-population-detention-centres-th ey-are. 28 “Thailand: Allow Newly Arrived Rohingya Access to Asylum: End Indefinite Detention, Stop Boat Pushbacks,” Human Rights Watch, June 7, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/07/thailand-allow-newly-arrived-rohingya-access-asylum. 29 Daniel P. Sullivan and Priyali Sur, “Shadow of Refuge: Rohingya Refugees in India,” Refugees International, May 18, 2023, https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/shadow-of-refuge-rohingya-refugees-in-india/; V. Venkatesan, “SC Seeks Centre’s Response to Petition Seeking Release of Illegally Detained Rohingya Refugees,” The Wire, October 11, 2023, https://thewire.in/government/sc-seeks-centres-response-to-petition-seeking-release-of-illegally-detained-rohingya-r efugees. 30 “Vietnam vessel saves 154 Rohingya refugees from sinking boat, transfers to Myanmar navy” Reuters, December 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnam-vessel-saves-154-rohingya-sinking-boat-transfers-myanmar-na vy-2022-12-09/. 8

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