268 Southwick still too high to allow returns to take place.29 In mid-2013 and following criticism from the UN and advocacy groups, the government said it would review its policy limiting each Rohingya family to two children only.30 Last August, 200 Buddhists mobbed the vehicle of a UN human rights envoy during his visit to Meiktila.31 Journalists reporting on the situation have also faced local intimidation and restrictions.32 Approximately 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar, but more and more Rohingya are expected to risk their lives leaving the country on rundown boats to seek refuge in Malaysia, Thailand, and elsewhere. In the past year, at least 35,000 have made this attempt,33 with at least 785 individuals reported to have drowned.34 Living conditions abroad are also desperate, as receiving states aim to discourage a mass migration. In August 2012, Bangladesh ordered humanitarian organisations to cease operations in makeshift camps, whose conditions were previously described by Physicians for Human Rights as ‘among the worst they had ever seen.’35 Sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Refugees International, ‘Myanmar: Protecting Minority Rights’ (n 26). AFP, ‘Government to Examine Two-Child Policy Targeting Rohingya’ Agence France Presse (3 June 2013), <www.dvb.no/news/govt-to-examine-two-child-policy-targeting-rohingya/ 28598> accessed 26 September 2013. TAP, ‘Myanmar: Mob Swarms Car of U.N. Rights Envoy’ New York Times (21 August 2013) <www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/world/asia/myanmar-mob-swarms-car-of-un -rights-envoy.html?src=recg&_r=1&.> accessed 26 September 2013. Hanna Hindstrom, ‘The Freedom to Hate’ Foreign Policy (Washington DC, 14 June 2012), <www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/14/the_freedom_to_hate?print=yes&hide comments=yes&page=full#> accessed 24 September 2013 (noting that broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma had faced a cyber attack on its website); Hanna Hindstrom, ‘Burma Blacklists Two US-Based Reporters for Covering Rohingya Crisis’ Democratic Voice of Burma (Oslo, 28 August 2013) <www.dvb.no/dvb-video/burma-blacklists -two-us-based-reporters-for-covering-rohingya-crisis/31983> accessed 24 September 2013. John Sparks, ‘Nightmare Island Where Traffickers Imprison Burma’s Rohingya’ Channel 4 News (8 August 2013), <www.channel4.com/news/nightmare-island-where-traffickers -imprison-burmas-muslims> accessed 24 September 2013 (citing Arakan Project). Danny Gold, “Prison camps” or Risking Death at Sea’ NBC News (7 September 2013), <http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/07/20231098-prison-camps-or-risking -death-at-sea-anti-muslim-mob-violence-provokes-dilemma-in-myanmar?lite> accessed 24 September 2013. IRIN, ‘Bangladesh: NGO Ban Hurting Undocumented Rohingya’ IRINNews (17 December 2012) <www.irinnews.org/report/97061/bangladesh-ngo-ban-hurting -undocumented-rohingya> accessed 24 September 2013. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 261-275