A harrowing new report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has revealed that children as young as six are being forced to perform manual labour in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. In one documented instance, a child was compelled to clear human remains from the ground in Buthidaung, a site near the location of a 2024 massacre in Hoyyar Siri village. These children are being used to construct military bases, displacement camps, and settlements for non-Rohingya residents on land previously occupied by three Rohingya villages.
The scale of these abuses is significant. In January 2026 alone, local sources in northern Rakhine recorded at least 2,353 instances of forced labour, with 75 of those cases involving children aged six or older. This system of exploitation is enforced at the community level, with villages required to provide workers to the Arakan Army—an ethnic-armed group operating in the region—for specified periods each week or month.
Ravina Shamdasani, Chief Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, warns that these documented cases likely represent only a fraction of the reality. Due to severe communication restrictions and limited access to Rakhine, the full scope of the crisis remains difficult to quantify. Shamdasani noted that the office has received numerous reports regarding the forced recruitment of children, as well as instances of early marriage, forced labour, and sexual violence.
Approximately 600 displaced Rohingya are currently being held in a detention camp for survivors of the 2024 massacre. These individuals are kept under constant guard to prevent information about the killings from reaching the outside world. Escapees have described dire conditions, reporting eight deaths within a few months, including a pregnant woman and five children. Detainees have also alleged widespread torture, including beatings with bamboo and rubber pipes, cigarette burns, and being suspended upside down until they lose consciousness.
The current situation is the latest chapter in a decades-long history of persecution. In August 2017, the Myanmar military initiated a campaign of violence and arson that forced over 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. UN investigators later determined this campaign was driven by genocidal intent. Since the February 2021 military coup, the conflict has evolved into a broader civil war, leaving the Rohingya trapped between competing armed factions.
Shamdasani emphasized that the military has adopted a strategy of surveillance and terror to suppress opposition, noting that impunity for these violations only fuels further violence. While the Arakan Army has replaced the military in parts of northern Rakhine, this shift has not improved safety for the Rohingya, who remain vulnerable to forced recruitment and other systematic abuses.
International legal efforts to secure justice remain ongoing but have yet to reach a conclusion. The Gambia filed a lawsuit against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in 2019, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention. While the case is progressing, no date for a final judgment has been set. Because the case focuses on state responsibility, reports like this one serve to bolster the factual record rather than address individual criminal liability.
Parallel efforts are also underway at the International Criminal Court, where the prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for former Senior General Min Aung Hlaing regarding the 2017 campaign. Additionally, courts in Argentina, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia have invoked universal jurisdiction to address alleged international crimes linked to both the Arakan Army and Min Aung Hlaing. While these multiple legal tracks are vital for accountability, Shamdasani maintains that they are not yet sufficient to end the suffering of the Rohingya people. The report also notes that they have faced severe violence and forced displacement, making them one of the world’s most persecuted communities, denied citizenship and stripped of basic rights. The report also notes that believing him dead during torture in Buthidaung prison, disposed of his body, one man said he woke up in scrubland after his captors. The report also notes that his son, arrested alongside him, later died in custody. The report also notes that families said they were forced to sign statements attributing the deaths to natural causes. The report also notes that for decades, the Rohingya had been denied citizenship under Myanmar’s 1982 law, leaving most of the population stateless and subjecting them to restrictions on movement, marriage, healthcare and education. The report also notes that the 2017 campaign turned that institutionalised exclusion into mass atrocity.
