A/HRC/42/CRP.5 586. The Mission received information that, in several areas across Kachin State, the financial situation of displaced families significantly deteriorated as a result of their displacement and the shrinking access to humanitarian assistance. IDPs face significant challenges in meeting the financial burden associated with their children’s education, such as tuition fees, which increases the likelihood of school dropout. 1413 A Kachin man told the Mission: “There are over 50,000 youth … The younger generations living in camps are uneducated, and there are a lot of drug problems…. It has already been eight years, and this is heart breaking for us.”1414 587. Reduced access to assistance, compounded by existing poverty, limited livelihood opportunities and the lack of documentation, has heightened the vulnerability of internally displaced people to a wide range of risks arising from landmines, ERWs, checkpoints and from sexual and gender-based violence. The risks are especially great when they are looking for food, farming or conducting other life sustaining activities outside their villages or camps.1415 588. For example, in March 2019, an internally displaced Kachin woman living in an IDP camp in Kachin State was injured and subsequently lost a leg as a result of the detonation of an explosive or unexploded ordnance. She was injured while looking for plants in the forest to make baskets for sale to generate income for her family.1416 She told the Mission: “I have two children, a boy and a girl, and after my injury I cannot support my family as I used to, which is why now we rely on the support we receive from others …. After my incident, no-one from the IDP camp dared to go back to the forest again.”1417 589. The deteriorating living conditions of displaced populations, compounded by the limited availability of livelihood opportunities, also increases risks of undocumented migration to neighboring countries and further deprivation of human rights.1418 Prevailing insecurity and poverty have exposed women and girls to trafficking, notably into Thailand and Malaysia for labour or for the sex industry1419 and into China for forced marriage and childbearing.1420 Women are vulnerable to trafficking by means of fraud or deception, particularly from people claiming to arrange a traditional marriage with female Kachin on the Chinese side of the border or to arrange for their employment. 1421 While the Mission’s investigation did not cover these issues, the Mission recognizes their importance as a consequence of the humanitarian situation on the ground and recommends that further investigation is warranted to address the root causes of this reported phenomenon. 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 158 FFFGEN-1-88353. 1333. GI-008, GM-019, GI-029, GI-034, 1337, GI-044, PM-009, GI-054, GI-055, GI-056, PI-161, FFFGEN-1-88352, V-348 p. 63, Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019. GI-054, GI-055. GI-054. FFFGEN-1-88351, V-348 p. 64, Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019. PI-002, Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Humanitarian Health and Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand, Estimating trafficking of Myanmar women for forced marriage and childbearing in China (December 2018); Human Rights Watch, “Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go” Trafficking of Kachin “Brides” from Myanmar to China (21 March 2019). Women head of households seek work in China where wages are higher and then are sold as brides to Chinese men and subjected to sexual slavery to have children; Human Rights Watch, “Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go” Trafficking of Kachin “Brides” from Myanmar to China (21 March 2019); Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019.

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