“ Rohingya refugees have continued to undertake dangerous sea journeys organised by traffickers and smugglers. Bangladesh authorities in the last month rescued and safely disembarked 700 Rohingya refugees following a long and harrowing journey at sea. The international community must recognise their rights of the Rohingya community for justice to be done and do something to change their lives. The Rohingya must have their rights to live in their own land freely and with dignity recognised and be safely and peacefully repatriated to Myanmar. RAZIA SULTANA The absence of legal documentation, exit permits, and regular migration routes for Rohingya, means that paying brokers and agents to facilitate irregular cross border and onward travel is the only option open. As such, the use and payment of agents is a normal and necessary practice in attempting to reach areas of Myanmar beyond Rakhine State, as well as India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the Middle-East, Europe and North America. These journeys are by sea, overland and by air. Within this wide-spread irregular and facilitated movement, many experience violence, deception, coercion or exploitation. Such elements are a feature of trafficking.9 Rohingya trafficking experiences include: kidnappings; extortion; the selling of Rohingya from one trafficker to another; threats to life; physical abuses such as torture and the rape of women and men; deception regarding pay and work conditions; debt bondage; labour exploitation; and commercial sexual exploitation.10 Border closures, immigration crackdowns and lack of access to asylum processes increase the likelihood of extortion and exploitation. Additionally, Rohingya in situations of labour exploitation often have no access to UNHCR. In India, for example, a large but unknown number of Rohingya families are trapped in bonded labour. Often they are bonded to their debt for around five to seven years and are confined to their places of work with no access to UNHCR asylum screening processes.11 Rohingya girls are also transported through irregular means to Bangladesh, Malaysia and India for the purpose of early marriage. The high proportion of Rohingya men living abroad having fled Myanmar, and the perception that the best way to protect Rohingya girls is through marriage, has contributed to the rising cost of dowries and increased the risks that parents are prepared to take in transporting their daughters outside of Myanmar for marriage. The observations of Rohingya Women Development Network (RWDN) in Malaysia and Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (RoHRIngya) in India who work directly with individuals and families affected by the issues of trafficking and exploitation, are, that Rohingya who take or arrange these journeys, are most often aware of the dangers and hazards of boat and travel and of crossing international borders, but are still prepared to take the risk. However, many are not aware of the extent of the abuses and deception by the agents themselves and often place their trust in these agents. Trafficking is broken down in to three elements. “1) The Act – the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons 2) The Means -Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim 3) The Purpose - For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.” UNODC, ‘Human Trafficking’ https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html (accessed 26/07/2020). 10 Information provided by RWDN. 11 Information provided by RoHRIngya, India. 9 6