4. THE MOVE TOWARD DIGITISATION IN MYANMAR: HEEDING THE WARNINGS AND RESPONDING TO THE RISKS Whilst more than 1.5 million Rohingya now live outside Myanmar, only an estimated 600,000 Rohingya still remain in Rakhine state, Myanmar.98 The majority live in an area known as North Rakhine State, in three townships – Maungdaw, Buthidaung and parts of Rathedaung. Rohingya have always made up the majority in these areas. Since the early 1990s, a series of local and national policies and practices that only apply to Muslim populations in North Rakhine State, have severely restricted their freedom of movement, their right to marry and have children, and access education and livelihoods. They are effectively segregated in these areas, unable to travel to the rest of the country. The discriminatory framework is held in place by state registration and identity cards systems, which single Rohingya out as non-citizens. The vast majority of Rohingya in North Rakhine State have been denied citizenship documents since the 1982 Citizenship Law and associated rules were implemented. Instead their personal identities have been recorded on household registration documents as well as individual identity cards which enable the state to ethnically profile, monitor and implement a deeply oppressive surveillance regime. State surveillance and pervasive local informer systems, first implemented under the NaSaKa in the 1990s,99 have been notoriously effective in these areas, with Rohingya routinely detained, harassed, extorted and beaten for minor infringements relating to permission to travel and household registration. Further, staying outside the family home, could result in being struck off the household registration documents, effectively cancelling residency in Myanmar.100 Rohingyas also live in Buddhist majority areas elsewhere in Rakhine State, where until more recently they were able to function relatively effectively within broader society. In 2012, state-led violence displaced around 130,000 Rohingya and other Muslims. Most have been contained in 24 camps around Rakhine, where severe restrictions of movement are in place.101 Since this time, they have not been able to access their homes or lands. Though officially termed Internally Displaced Persons camps, the terms “internment” or “detention” camps better capture their true nature.102 Many people in these camps report that their documents were destroyed, removed or confiscated in 2012. Many have not been able to obtain replacements or have needed to pay prohibitively large bribes to do so.103 The removal and destruction of identity cards and the barriers to replacing them are often described as a set of deliberate state strategies to expel Rohingya..104 Whilst a digital archive of civil documentation is welcomed in order to protect legal status in Myanmar, without proper safeguards in place and without individual’s control over personal data, it is unclear how such records in the hands of the perpetrating state could help prevent or reduce Rohingya statelessness. Rohingyas and Muslims from Rakhine state also live elsewhere in Myanmar including Yangon, where they are mostly required to hide or play down their ethnic identity and origins.105 Access to work, education and services is currently not, in practice, completely tied to possession of citizenship cards. People who lack valid citizenship cards have been able to utilise a variety of other documents in order to live in relative security. There are deep concerns UNHCR, ‘Global Focus Statistics’ (2019) available at: https://reporting.unhcr.org/node/2541 [accessed 11/10/2020] “NaSaKa” was a hybrid security force designed solely for Rohingya by General Khin Nyunt and assigned with implementation of this system. They operated with impunity. 100 Amnesty International, ‘Caged without a Roof: Apartheid in Myanmar's Rakhine State’ (2017) available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ asa16/7484/2017/en/ [accessed 13/11/2020] Burma Human Rights Network, ‘Nowhere to run in Burma: Rohingya trapped between an open-air prison and jail’ (2020) available at: http://www.bhrn.org.uk/en/ report/1128-nowhere-to-run-in-burma.html [accessed 13/11/2020]; See also Fortify Rights, ‘Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’ (2014) available at: https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Policies_of_Persecution_Feb_25_Fortify_Rights.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020] 101 UNHCR, ‘UNHCR Fact sheet: Myanmar‘ (September 2019) available at: https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20Myanmar%20Fact%20 Sheet%20-%20September%202019.pdf [accessed 26/10/2020] 102 Fortify Rights used the term “internment camp” in Fortify Rights, ‘"Tools of Genocide": National Verification Cards and the Denial of Citizenship of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’ (2019) available at: https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Tools%20of%20Genocide%20-%20Fortify%20Rights%20-%20September-03-2019-EN.pdf [accessed 13/11/2020]; Human Rights Watch used the term “detention camps” in Human Rights Watch, ‘”An Open Prison without End”: Myanmar's Mass Detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State’ (2020) available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/10/08/open-prison-without-end/myanmars-mass-detention-rohingya-rakhine-state [accessed 13/11/2020] 103 Interview with Rohingya researcher on his findings, Dar Paing IDP camp, September 2020 (name withheld). 104 Findings from field work conducted by Natalie Brinham between August 2017 and June 2019 in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Europe. This research was conducted as part of a PhD research project and was funded by Queen Mary University of London and the Economic and Social Research Council, UK. 98 99 Submissions from the co-authors for the ISI consultation with the UNSR’s report on race, borders and technology. Also Interview with Rohingya researchers, Yangon, September 2020 (name withheld). 105 21