acute malnutrition and 161 cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). They were able to treat the
children with RUTF imported from India. Following treatment, there are currently 14 cases of SAM
and 63 of MAM in the village tract, all showing signs of marasmus.132
Water and sanitation facilities in Rohingya villages in the Kyauktaw area are wholly inadequate after
years of systemic neglect by the authorities, damage from Cyclone Mocha, as well as during the
heavy battles for control over Kyauktaw township. Villagers report that there are no proper sanitation
systems and no fly-proof latrines. In March, two infants died during an outbreak of diarrhoea in one
Rohingya village.133 BROUK was unable to collect data about diarrhoea outbreaks from other
villages.
Due to the rapidly deteriorating conditions of life in Kyauktaw township, approximately 2,000
Rohingya are estimated to have fled Kyauktaw township in 2025.134 Young men and women are
risking their lives in the hands of people smugglers and human traffickers every week, with the
Arakan Army reported to be heavily involved.135
Criminalisation of Rohingya fleeing the conditions of life inflicted on them
Rohingya who attempt to flee the appalling conditions of life inflicted upon them in Rakhine State are
routinely arrested and imprisoned for travelling without identity documents and travel authorisations which the State itself has made it so difficult to obtain. Cases against the Rohingya are usually
brought under the 1949 Residents of Burma Registration Act (and 1951 Resident of Burma
Registration Rules), which carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail with hard labour, or under
Article 13(1) of the 1947 Burma Immigration (Emergency Provisions) Act) for a jail term of five
years.136 Under international law, the statelessness of a person resulting from the arbitrary deprivation
of nationality cannot be invoked by a State as a justification for the denial of other human rights,
including freedom of movement.137 The Myanmar State’s complex web of discriminatory laws and
movement restrictions applied solely to members of the Rohingya group violate international human
rights laws. Furthermore, they criminalise the Rohingya for attempting to flee the appalling conditions
of life they are subjected to in Rakhine State.
Rohingya who flee Rakhine State are in danger of being picked up by the Myanmar Navy at sea or
arrested onshore or inland. They are immediately detained and summarily sentenced without due
process. Children are separated from their mothers and sent to child and youth detention centres. It is
very difficult to know how many Rohingya men, women, and children are in prisons and other
detention facilities across the country at any point in time. Conditions in these facilities are extremely
harsh, and most prisoners depend on their families to provide them with nutritious food and
medicines. But the families of many Rohingya don’t know what has happened to them. Even if they
learn what has happened to their loved ones, they are unable to visit them due to the very same
restrictions on their freedom of movement.
Rohingya prisoners tend to be detained even after their unlawful sentences have ended, because the
regime is reluctant to make arrangements to return them to their original townships. Rohingya
prisoners released in February were transferred to the already overcrowded Sittwe internment camps,
where they are at risk of being forcibly recruited into the Myanmar military. Rohingya in Rakhine
State face a perpetual cycle of persecution, flight, criminalisation for fleeing, imprisonment, and
132 ibid.
133 ibid.
134 ibid.
135 BROUK reference ICJ11-OAC-AA-TR-KTW-1. AA alleged involvement in people smuggling and human trafficking is
detailed in the section Other atrocity crimes & the Arakan Army’s failure to comply with the provisional measures.
136 Rohingya Communities Worldwide, ‘Joint UPR Submission 2020’ 11 [30]. Burma Human Rights Network, ‘Nowhere to
Run in Burma: Rohingya trapped between an open-air prison and jail’ (26 August 2020).
137 UNFFMM 2018 report op. cit. 119-120 [499-500].
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