15. Since 21 June 2019, the Myanmar government has restricted internet access across eight townships in Rakhine and Chin States. The Ministry of Transportation and Communication cite security concerns when justifying the internet blackout, which affects more than one million people. 16. Between August 2017 and 31 March 2020, 835,268 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh and registered through the joint government of Bangladesh UNCHR registration programme.17 UNHCR also estimates the number of stateless Rohingya in Rakhine State Myanmar to now be 459,114.18 17. The Rohingya who remained in Rakhine following 2017 live in depraved apartheid conditions. Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, wrote that: “Across the border in Rakhine State, Rohingya continue to live in what “amounts to an openair prison where all aspects of their lives are controlled. Decades of systematic, statesponsored discrimination has denied Rohingya citizenship and their freedom of movement, meaning people have to apply for special permission to leave their villages, earn a living, or even to seek healthcare. Education – in particularly beyond primary level – is essentially blocked to most Rohingya. Levels of poverty and malnutrition are shockingly high”19 Repatriation 18. Despite the prevalence of such dehumanising conditions, an ongoing genocide process and structural barriers to equality – including the deprivation of nationality of the Rohingya – in 2018, the UNHCR and UNDP entered into a MoU with Myanmar to facilitate repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar. Despite significant concerns and criticism, including for the failure to consult Rohingya or to even share the MoU text with Rohingya refugees,20 the MoU has been twice renewed, most recently in May 2020.21 19. In 2017, having analysed the challenges related to the statelessness, refugee status and repatriation of Rohingya, and consulted with Rohingya groups, ISI published seven conditions to be met, before repatriation to be even considered. These conditions are voluntariness, UN oversight, right to nationality, equality and human rights, normalisation, accountability and rehabilitation & reintegration.22 None of these conditions have been met. 20. However, since 2017, there have been three attempts at repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar, with the latest in August 2019. However, these attempts were not successful, largely due to the failure of the Myanmar government to address the structural root causes of the crisis, and a failure to consult the Rohingya themselves about details of repatriation. Many Rohingya refuse to return to Rakhine state which has recently been enveloped in another conflict between government troops and Arakan Army insurgents.23 These conditions, according to the UN, are not 17UNHCR (2020) Operational Dashboard: 2020 Indicators Monitoring [online] available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/76054 18 UNHCR data, ‘Myanmar’ (2019), available at http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/2541?y=2019#year. 19 T. Khin, ‘It’s Been Two Years Since 730,000 Rohingya Were Forced to Flee. There’s No End in Sight to the Crisis’, Time Magazine (25 Augst 2019), https://time.com/5660088/rohingya-crisis-myanmar/?xid=tcoshare. 20 See for example, this 2018 statement by 23 Rohingya organisations: https://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2018/06/10/rohingyaorganizations-int-l-communities-in-dark-over-recent-mou. 21 For more information on the MoU, see: https://www.unhcr.org/asia/news/press/2020/5/5eb8fe484/undp-unhcr-and-the-governmentof-the-union-of-myanmar-extend-memorandum.html. 22 For more information, see Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, ‘Repatriation, statelessness and refugee status: three crucial issues in the unfolding Rohingya crisis’, October 2017, available at: https://files.institutesi.org/repatriation_statelessness_and_refugee_status_2017.pdf. 23 T. T. Aung et al, ‘Exclusive: Myanmar, Bangladesh agree to start Rohingya repatriation next week’ (15 Aug 2019), available at https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-myanmar-rohingya-exclusive-idUKKCN1V51OB. 4