January 2023.31 This threat, combined with their deteriorating living conditions, have left Rohingya and many other detainees from Myanmar with no choice but to escape their detention facilities. Such was demonstrated in early February 2024, when 151 detainees, including 115 Rohingya refugees, from Myanmar had escaped Malaysia’s Bidor immigration detention center and left a Rohingya dead.32 This recent incident follows the April 2022 escape of over 500 Myanmar detainees (the majority of whom were Rohingya according to the UNHCR) from the Sungai Bakap immigration detention center, which resulted in the deaths of at least six of these asylum seekers.33 Dozens of Rohingya have also been deported by the Indian authorities, whose acts remain in line with the government’s 2017 orders for states to identify and deport “illegal Rohingya” seeking refuge in the country.34 Given this precedent, it cannot be denied that Rohingya boat people will be protected from that risk in India. This is despite the Indian coastal security forces’ January 2024 interception of a boat carrying at least 142 Rohingya refugees – including 47 women and 59 children – from Bangladesh, and subsequent relocation of them to “temporary shelters” in Port Blair. WPN has been informed that the Indian authorities returned the Rohingya to the sea, reportedly resulting in their disembarkation in Indonesia in early February.35 Subsequently, the Rohingya refugees who are forcibly deported to Myanmar risk detention and other abuses by the Burmese military. The majority of these Rohingya have already avoided arbitrary arrest and detention by the Burmese military; since October 2023, the military has detained 384 Rohingya attempting to flee the country by boat according to WPN’s sources and other reports.36 The military has also, in fact, long detained and 31 Iman Muttaqin Yusof and Iskandar Zulkarnain, “Malaysia deports 114 Muslim Myanmar nationals, including children, their lawyer says,” Benar News, February 23, 2023, https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/malaysia-myanmar-muslim-deportation-02232023132041.html . “Amnesty International Malaysia condemns deportation of more Myanmar nationals, including children,” Amnesty International Malaysia, February 23, 2023, https://www.amnesty.my/2023/02/23/amnesty-international-malaysia-condemns-deportation-of-more-myanmar-nati onals-including-children/. 32 “Dozens of Rohingya refugees flee Malaysia immigration detention centre,” Al Jazeera, February 2, 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/2/dozens-of-rohingya-refugees-flee-malaysian-immigration-detention-centr e. 33 “UNHCR shocked by reported deaths of asylum-seekers after riot at immigration depot in Malaysia,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, April 21, 2022, https://www.unhcr.org/asia/news/speeches-and-statements/unhcr-shocked-reported-deaths-asylum-seekers-after-r iot-immigration. 34 Niranjan Sahoo, “India’s Rohingya Realpolitik,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 31, 2017, https://carnegieendowment.org/2017/10/31/india-s-rohingya-realpolitik-pub-74590. 35 “Boat carrying suspected Rohingyas intercepted in Andaman,” India Today, December 25, 2023, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/boat-carrying-suspected-rohingyas-intercepted-in-andaman-2480058-2023-1 2-25. 36 “Rohingya arrested at sea shunted back to Myanmar camps,” France 24, September 3, 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200903-rohingya-arrested-at-sea-shunted-back-to-myanmar-camps; Shaikh Azizur Rahman, “Myanmar Reportedly Jailed Malaysia-bound Rohingya Refugees for Traveling ‘Without Official Documents,’ VOA, January 13, 2023, https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-reportedly-jailed-malaysia-bound-rohingya-refugees-for-traveling-without-offi cial-documents-/6917621.html; “Myanmar navy arrests 130 Rohingya attempting to flee to Malaysia,” Radio Free Asia, April 4, 2023, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rohingya-arrests-malaysia-04042023165839.html; 9