Rohingya confirmed that some Rohingya in Rakhine had to pay several hundreds of thousands of kyats to the SAC staff to get the national registration card and national verification card.
When applying for these cards, they have to pay ward clerks, ward administrators, township general administration department, police, and immigration staff step by step, and it is said that they have to pay at least Kyat 5,000,000 to 10,000,000.
“From getting a letter of endorsement from the ward clerk to applying for the registration card, I have to pay the staff of the Immigration department who issue the card. In my case, it cost about ten million kyats. It took more than two years to get it,” a Rohingya who got a registration card from Maungdaw told MPA.
The Rohingya community says that all Rohingya in Rakhine are deprived of their freedom of movement and civil rights, and so those who can afford to get the cards at the cost of hundreds of thousands of kyats.
Those who do not have national registration cards and national verification cards are not allowed to fly or travel, and if they are going to travel beyond the township, they have to apply for a travel permit form No. (4) at the relevant immigration office about one or two months in advance, and they also have to pay money.
Because of such restrictions, the Rohingya in Rakhine say that those who can afford it pay SAC staff to facilitate access to health, education, and economic and social purposes.
“Those who live here and have money have applied for and held NVCs from the beginning. Through them, they get a Card (NVC is a pre-verified card to apply for a national registration card), and they could go to Yangon after passing through countries (throughout Myanmar). They need to get a card, so they don’t care anymore whatever it writes Bengali or anything,” a Rohingya man from Buthidaung town told MPA.
Such verification cards are mostly made by Rohingyas in Maungdaw District and Sittwe District in Rakhine. The Rohingya claim that the documents and information are complete, but if they do not pay the amount of money requested by the officials of the Immigration department, the officials do not issue them for a long time.
In addition, some immigration officials from Rakhine told MPA that although the documents and information are not complete, if they pay the amount of money requested by the immigration officials, they get it quickly, and they also receive it through the military officers of the SAC.
The Rohingya community in Rakhine state has not been recognized as citizens by successive Myanmar governments, and the Rohingya community has not officially recognized the name Rohingya, and the Rohingya community says that they still use the term Bengali.
There are nearly three million Rohingya in Myanmar, most of whom live in Rakhine state, and they say they are deprived of basic human rights, such as freedom of movement.
“Ten percent of the world’s stateless population lives inside Myanmar, and Muslims in Rakhine State are one of the largest stateless groups in the world. The community faces restrictions on their basic rights and concerns about daily matters,” the final report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State said.