Summary Furthermore, Rohingya are increasingly only able to access livelihoods if they hold an NVC, creating severe economic pressure on any Rohingya who refuse to identify as a “Bengali” or other foreign identity. “Last year, in September 2018, the authorities told me I could not fish,” a Rohingya fisher, 30, told Fortify Rights. “Without the NVC, we cannot move or work, so I had no choice but to take the NVC.” Even with NVCs, Rohingya are systematically denied freedom of movement. The government continues to confine nearly 500,000 Rohingya to isolated, poor villages and to 24 squalid internment camps located in five townships in Rakhine State. NATIONAL VERIFICATION CARDS, HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS, AND ROHINGYA IDENTITY The Myanmar government-imposed restrictions to force Rohingya to accept NVCs also impact the work of international humanitarian aid organizations operational in northern Rakhine State. Rohingya aid workers are required by the government to hold an NVC to travel and carry out their work. Fortify Rights documented how at least five humanitarian aid organizations coerced Rohingya to accept NVCs. “My country director said, ‘How can you stay with [our organization] without travel authorization?’ I was advised that it is better to take the NVC to carry out my duties,” a Rohingya aid worker in northern Rakhine State told Fortify Rights. “[The agency] said, if not, they will not hire me again next year. I started considering my job security, and if I talk to you honestly, I had to take the NVC.” 12 N.M., 75, shows his original White Card receipt. The Myanmar government issued the receipts to Rohingya after revoking their White Cards in March 2015. Like the White Card, the receipts confer no rights. “[Myanmar soldiers] asked us to take the NVC cards. We refused and said, ‘We can only take the card if you write down that we are Rohingya.’ The security forces said, ‘We cannot do it as you are just Bengalis,’ but we made it very clear to them that even if we are beaten to death, we would not take the NVC.” ©Saiful Huq Omi, Counter Foto, Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, August 2019