text, attempts were made to pilot the collection of biometric data from some Rohingya in Rakhine, with a view to developing e-ID cards in future.⁹ Rohingya reported the increasing use of coercion and force by government officials and armed security forces in attempting to issue the NVCs.¹⁰ In 2016 and 2017, the forced issuance of the NVCs coincided with the waves of genocidal violence by security forces as part of their ‘security operations’ against Rohingya.¹¹ This resulted in the expulsion of 725,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.¹² Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh across many decades, with mass expulsions also occurring in 1978 and 19911992, followed by two mass forced repatriations which proved unsustainable. More than 200,000 Rohingya made their way back into Bangladesh in the years in between, driven by an increasingly precarious legal status in Myanmar and a lack of state protection.¹³ In 2016, Bangladesh began to digitise the national ID system with a view to prevent forgery and improve service access for citizens. After the 2017 Rohingya arrivals, the refugee registration system was also digitised. Digitised registration was viewed as supporting evidence of Rohingyas’ right to return to Myanmar, whereby proof of residence in Rakhine was not contingent on Myanmar’s paper-based registration system that was open to abuse. The digitisation of refugee registration was also needed to improve the efficiency of aid delivery and access to basic services for refugees, as well as other protections and benefits. However, the collection and storage of biometric and biographic information comes with risks and concerns, in particular Rohingyas in the camps are concerned about how this data will be used in relation to future repatriations back to Myanmar.¹⁴ In 2012, a campaign of state-led violence drove at least 130,000 Rohingya and Muslims from their homes in Rakhine. Most remain detained in internment camps in Rakhine state and are subjected to restrictions of movement and restrictions of their rights.¹⁵ With restrictions and a lack of protection available in Bangladesh, between 2012and 2015, an estimated 170,000 Rohingya boarded boats from Rakhine and Bangladesh and made perilous journeys across the sea to southeast Asia.¹⁶ Tens of thousands also made their way on the slightly less dangerous overland routes to join other Rohingyas in India. In India, biometric IDs or Aadhaar cards provided holders with access to a wide range of services. Rohingyas’ legal status in the country became increasingly precarious in 2017 and the Aadhaar system together with citizenship and population registers has produced further exclusions and insecurities for Rohingya. In particular, Rohingyas have highlighted the increased risk of refoulement to Myanmar, and concerns about the sharing of biographic and biometric data and surveillance information between India and Myanmar. They remain concerned about the risk of the forced implementation of Myanmar’s national verification processes on return. Across the decades, without legal status and state protection in either Myanmar or Bangladesh, many Rohingya moved onwards to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and elsewhere in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. In most of these settings, Rohingya do not have access to a secure legal status and either live in refugee camps dependent on aid, or work in the informal and unorganised sectors of the economy. Without legal status, their lives are precarious, and they experience intergenerational statelessness. ⁹A forthcoming briefing from Privacy International sets out what is known to date about the new digital ID proposal in Myanmar and raises some specific concerns based on Myanmar’s current citizenship regime and ID system. ¹⁰ N. Brinham, ‘Looking Beyond Invisibility: Rohingyas’ Dangerous Encounters with Papers and Cards’ (2019) 24 Tilburg Law Review 2, available at: https:// tilburglawreview.com/articles/10.5334/tilr.151/# [accessed 13/11/2020] Fortify Rights, ‘“Tools of Genocide”: National Verification Cards and the Denial of Citizenship of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’ (2019) available at: https:// www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Tools%20of%20Genocide%20-%20Fortify%20Rights%20-%20September-03-2019-EN.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020]; See also, R. Potter, and Kyaw Win, ‘National Verification Cards - a barrier to Rohingya repatriation’, Burma Human Rights Network (2019) available at: http://www. bhrn.org.uk/en/report/1090-national-verification-cards-a-barrier-to-rohingya-repatriation-full-report.html [accessed 13/11/2020] ¹¹ P. Green, T. McManus, & A. de la Cour Venning, ‘Genocide achieved, genocide continues: Myanmar’s annihilation of the Rohingya’ (2018) available at: http://statecrime.org/data/2018/04/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-II-PUBLISHED-VERSION-revised-compressed.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020]; See also UNHRC, ‘Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar’ (2018) available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/myanmarFFM/Pages/ ReportoftheMyanmarFFM.aspx [accessed 13/11/2020] ¹² The UN Independent Fact-Finding Commission on Myanmar: The Human Rights Catastrophe in Northern Rakhine State 2017 (2018), available at: https:// www.ohchr.org/SiteCollectionImages/Bodies/HRCouncil/MyanmarFFM/Report2018/Rakhine.jpg [accessed 11/11/2020] ¹³ ‘UNHCR Global Appeal 2012-2013’ (2012) available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ga12/index.xml [accessed 13/11/2020] ¹⁴ N. Brinham, ‘“Genocide cards”: Rohingya refugees on why they risked their lives to refuse ID cards’, Open Democracy (2018) available at: https://www. opendemocracy.net/natalie-brinham/genocide-cards-why-rohingya-refugees-are-resisting-id-cards [accessed 11/11/2020]; See also, The Engine Room, ‘Understanding the Lived Effects of Digital ID: A Multi-Country Study’ (2020) available at: https://digitalid.theengineroom.org/assets/pdfs/200123_FINAL_ TER_Digital_ID_Report+Annexes_English_Interactive.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020] ¹⁵ Human Rights Watch, ‘“An open prison without end”: Myanmar’s mass detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State’ (2020) available at: https://www.hrw.org/ report/2020/10/08/open-prison-without-end/myanmars-mass-detention-rohingya-rakhine-state [accessed 13/11/2020] ¹⁶ UNHCR, ‘Mixed Maritime Movements in South-East Asia in 2015’ (2016) available at: https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20-%20 Mixed%20Maritime%20Movements%20in%20South-East%20Asia%20-%202015.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020] 5