Halamiya (name chnaged), another survivor, narrates his tragic story that after his family and he were forcibly displaced from his home by the AA, they sought refuge in Sein Hyen Pyar, an area controlled by the ethnic group. However, due to the severe restrictions imposed on their daily lives, survival became increasingly difficult. Eventually, they had no choice but to leave Myanmar and attempt to reach Malaysia for safety. During their journey, they fell into the hands of human traffickers at the Thailand border. They were held captive and tortured for nearly three months. Only after their family paid the ransom demanded by the traffickers, they were finally released. The traffickers contacted one of his family members through a mobile phone and demanded 20 million Myanmar kyats for release. They threatened to kill them if the ransom was not paid and even sent photographs to their families as a form of blackmail. “My family had to arrange and pay the ransom amount of 20 million Myanmar kyats (approximately $9520) in cash. The human traffickers used threats and psychological torture, making it clear that failure to meet their demands would cost us our lives. The traffickers made it clear that if the ransom was not paid, they would kill us” states Halamiya (name chnaged). They used intimidation tactics, such as sending photos to families to pressure them into paying. These threats, as he puts it, were terrifying, and many Rohingya families have lost their loved ones because they were unable to pay the demanded ransom. Shamshudin (Name Changed) and his family and many others, as he narrates in his testimony, in the community have experienced extortion by both the AA and Myanmar state forces. The AA frequently demands money from Rohingya families in exchange for allowing them to stay in their villages or to travel within restricted areas. Similarly, state forces also demand bribes for basic services, such as granting travel permission or access to healthcare. “My family has personally been threatened with violence for not complying with these demands. Many people in my community have had to pay large sums of money just to survive”, he narrates in his testimony. The extortion is both financial and physical. He goes on to record that, “the AA and state forces regularly demand money from us for various reasons whether to allow us to stay in our villages, travel to another area, or even for protection. If we fail to pay, we are often threatened with violence or forced to leave our homes. These threats come in different forms- sometimes they are made directly in person at checkpoints or during raids, while other times, we receive threats through local informants or over the phone.” The extortion payments are demanded both in cash 25