examine the current legal and policy environment, from a rights-based perspective, and clarify the availability and applicability of legal protection to the Rohingya community. It also supports the principle of progressive realization of rights. This guide’s legal analysis of the applicability of national law and policy is based on the understanding that the Government of Bangladesh has exercised its powers under Section 10 of the Foreigners Act to permit entry to and presence in Bangladesh of the Rohingya population that arrived in August 2017. Under Section 10 of the Foreigners Act, the Government has broad discretion to exempt any individual foreigner or any class or description of foreigner from any provision of the Act. This includes Rohingya who have arrived since 2017 and are currently residing in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. This assumption of exemption is grounded in the Government of Bangladesh’s recognition of the commission of international crimes by Myanmar state forces and gross violations of human rights, including genocide, against the Rohingya population.10 Although this document specifically focuses on Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the same arguments and suggested application of law and policy can in some instances be used to further the rights of other groups facing precarity and a denial of rights in Bangladesh. In other words, although the analysis in this document is textually narrow, its application is potentially broader. That said, broader application should be approached with caution, given that the analysis contained herein is both based on the assumption of recognition of legal stay, as well as grounded in the specific plight of the Rohingya population in the region and the exceptional circumstances that led to their flight. Finally, as long as nation states continue to criminalize immigration as part of complex domestic political discourse, legal stay as a gateway right to other rights and as an entry point for access to basic freedoms and services can never be guaranteed. For the law and policy outlines in this document to be a practical tool to claim and enforce rights, it must be translated into practice and applied by those leading the refugee response domestically. It is hoped that the information that follows will provide frontline workers and advocates with a starting point for the legal empowerment of the Rohingya community and for the progressive realization of their rights. 8 BE YOND REFU GE: ADVANCING LEG AL PROTECTIONS FOR ROHINGYA C OMMUNITIES IN BANGL ADESH