Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, no. I have been a bit surprised because I used to be funded by Canada, and in the last couple of years I haven't had any contact at all. I'm glad now that some of the parliamentary committees have invited me to testify. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, obviously there is. As you see, to be a citizen is to at least have access to basic rights, and it is the case that stateless people don't have that. As to how to solve this problem, of course I don't have a straightforward answer, but it's interesting, because the 1982 citizenship law in Myanmar itself is not in line with international standards and creates statelessness rather than trying to avoid it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Initially, there was a vote in parliament to allow it, because at the time they were holding temporary ID cards. In the past, holders of these temporary ID cards were allowed to vote, because they were considered by the government as not really being stateless, but as being doubtful citizens that need to be verified.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. I think that is a common goal of many of the NGOs, together with UN agencies. Yes, it would be very important. However, so far the government, including the Suu Kyi government, has not yet given any clear sign whether or not they would allow this office. However, if the office is opened, I hope it will do more than just provide technical assistance, but also have the power of investigation into violations of human rights in the country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, but I'm unable to answer this question because I haven't followed all the different actions that Canada has been taking over the past few years. Perhaps Human Rights Watch would know better than I, but definitely, yes. I want to point out—perhaps Mr. Tabbara also mentioned it—that recently I was in Geneva for the lunch of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think its origin is in history, because during the British colonial rule, which started in 1823, there was a large migration from India. At the time, India was part of the British empire, including what is Bangladesh and Chittagong today. Muslims have been living in Rakhine state for much longer than that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First, I just want to clarify something. In my presentation, I focused quite a lot on the unregistered refugees outside Myanmar. Here you're mostly talking about the IDP in the camp, the internally displaced persons camp inside Myanmar.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Right. This is an extremely complicated issue. The first group of people who were displaced by violence in June 2012 have been sort of accepted by the government. The government actually organized their transfer to those camps. Then there was a second wave of violence, as you know, in October 2012, and some of the people came from the south of Rakhine state, where there was also violence, to Sittwe.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, as I mentioned in my recommendations, I think there is a need for strong advocacy with the Government of Myanmar to make sure that they are committed to addressing the situation and finding a solution to resolve at least the situation of the Rohingya, which includes, of course, citizenship, freedom of movement, and resettlement or relocation of these people to their place of origin.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Access to medical care is, of course, one of the biggest problems. I think what is probably most important is perhaps strong advocacy with the government here, because, as you know, there was an attack against the humanitarian agency by Rakhine extremists in 2014. Now the situation there has returned to normal more or less, but the biggest problem is the fact the Rohingya NGO health workers cannot leave the camps, so they can't go out and can't get permission to move.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, 120,000 is the current figure by OCHA, the UN humanitarian aid coordinating agency, of IDPs in camps. These are the ones who are listed by the government and are receiving assistance, because, as I said to your colleague earlier, some of them do not and live in shacks and huts.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not very sure I have completely understood your question, Ms. Gallant. Could you repeat briefly the issue about documentation?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, the Rohingya are stateless and don't have passports. They don't have identity cards. They used to have a temporary small white card, which has now been cancelled. They only have a receipt at the moment. The government has created a system of what they call “citizenship verification”, so that they have to actually reapply for citizenship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I understand, through colleagues here in Canada, that in 2011 the regulation creating the source country class was repealed. The source country class allowed residents of designated countries to apply directly to Canada for refugee status from inside their own country, whether the country of residence or the country of origin.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What we start seeing now, after four years, is a little bit of donor fatigue, I think. That's part of the problem. Also, wider conditions in the camps are not very good anymore, but it's also, of course, due to the fact that I think the international community was waiting to see what Aung San Suu Kyi would do, with the hope that these camps would not stay another four years.