\u201cThe NVC is widely known as an abusive tool, and the government should scrap it without delay,\u201d <\/em>said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. \u201cThis new evidence implicates government <\/em>officials in ongoing efforts to erase Rohingya identity and deny them full citizenship.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Fortify Rights documented five recent cases of Myanmar authorities in Rakhine State forcing or coercing Rohingya to accept the NVC. The organization also obtained an internal government document informing state-, district-, and local-level officials that a team of officials would be deployed to issue NVCs to Rohingya in internment camps in Sittwe Township. The document, dated December 7, 2019, is signed by the head of the Sittwe Township Department of Immigration and Population, informing the administrator of Thet Kay Pyin that an \u201cimmigration mobile team\u201d would be deployed to Thet Kay Pyin internment camp. The document states the team would be tasked with issuing NVCs to \u201cBengali people\u201d\u2014a term often used by Myanmar officials to refer to Rohingya, implying that they are from Bangladesh and their ethnic Rohingya identity does not exist.\u00a0The township official copied state- and district-level officers of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population on the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 31-year old Rohingya man in Thet Kay Pyin internment camp told Fortify Rights how state security officers forced him to accept an NVC on December 10, just three days after the document was issued. He said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n On December 10, the immigration and BGP [Border Guard Police] came to the [Thet Kay Pyin] camp . . . There were about 40 BGP and immigration officers . . . I signed on the [NVC application] form. I can\u2019t read Burmese, so I don\u2019t know what it said. The immigration officers filled out the whole form for me.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t get to fill out the form [at the immigration office],\u201d another Rohingya, 40, told Fortify Rights on December 18. \u201cThe immigration officer filled [the NVC form] out for me. I could see I was labeled as a \u2018Bengali\u2019 on the application . . . Taking the NVC was the only option if I wanted to work and travel freely.\u201d Moreover, while the vast majority of more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refuse to return to Myanmar until the government restores their rights and ensures protections, a small number of Rohingya have returned to Rakhine State informally and voluntarily. Authorities forced Rohingya who have returned to accept NVCs. We were taken to Nga Ku Ya [reception center]. They took group pictures of us in the reception center. They took our fingerprints and signatures and showed a sample picture of the NVC there in Nga Ku Ya . . . Every one of us was issued the NVC.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n In a similar case documented by Fortify Rights, a Rohingya man, 35, and his family returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh informally last year. He told Fortify Rights how Myanmar authorities brought him and his family to a reception center:<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, they checked our belongings. After they verified us through the family list and checked that we were not a list of members of an extremist group, they gave us the NVC. There is no value in the NVC. Here, in Rakhine State, it\u2019s very difficult. I can\u2019t travel or work. The government is restricting us all the time.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Two Rohingya told Fortify Rights that they applied for Myanmar citizenship with newly issued NVCs and that the authorities denied their applications. For example, a 35-year old Rohingya resident of Rakhine State said: \u201cWe were called to the township immigration office. I applied for citizenship with the NVC. However, the immigration authorities informed me that my family and I are not entitled to citizenship even when my parents had documents.\u201d [The Myanmar delegation] are lying again and again. They say that the NVC is for those who have no documents, but we still have many documents of Myanmar . . . [The Myanmar delegation] said nothing new. For me, they came to visit the refugee camps just for show to try and calm down the international pressure and the allegations at the ICJ [International Court of Justice].<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/K5A8865-683x1024.jpg\")
\u201cI was forced to take the NVC,\u201d another 27-year-old Rohingya resident in Rakhine State told Fortify Rights in November. \u201cIt\u2019s blue color . . . I didn\u2019t have to write any forms.\u201d
The government of Myanmar continues to confine more than 125,000 Rohingya to more than 20 internment camps in five townships of Rakhine State. During violent attacks in 2012, extremists and state security forces forcibly displaced most of the Rohingya now confined to the camps.
Fortify Rights also obtained a copy of the \u201cNational Strategy on Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Closure of IDP Camps,\u201d adopted by the Union-level Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement on November 20. The document instructs authorities to facilitate \u201ccitizenship verification in camps slated for closure.\u201d In practice, \u201ccitizenship verification\u201d in Rakhine State is implemented through the NVC process.<\/p>\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/NVC-report-.jpg\")
For instance, in November, a Rohingya man explained to Fortify Rights that he returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh informally on October 11, 2019. Upon arriving in Myanmar, authorities brought him and other Rohingya to a reception center. He told Fortify Rights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Radio Free Asia <\/em>reported<\/a> similar cases of authorities continuing to deny Rohingya access to citizenship despite receiving newly issued NVCs.
Most Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refuse to return to Myanmar so long as the government continues to force Rohingya to accept NVCs.
\u201cWith the NVC, we will not return to Myanmar,\u201d said a 24-year-old Rohingya refugee woman originally from Buthidaung Township. \u201cNo Rohingya wants to accept the NVC by their own will.\u201d
From December 18 to 19, a Myanmar delegation visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they attempted to persuade Rohingya to accept NVCs.
\u201cThe Myanmar officials asked us to accept NVCs,\u201d an 18-year-old Rohingya told Fortify Rights following the meeting, which he attended.
Following the first day of the visit, Director General of the Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chan Aye told reporters, \u201cWe explained them [sic] issues related to citizenship and the NVC.\u201d
Mohib Ullah, chair of the Rohingya-led civil society organization Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, told Fortify Rights the day after the second day of meetings with the Myanmar delegation, on December 20:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"N.M.,](\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/K5A0331-1024x683.jpg\")