The regime’s armed forces arrested 136 Rohingya in Yangon Region in the first week of January, in addition to the 332 arrested in the area last year and the 1,759 detained in other parts of the country, according to information provided by a Rohingya rights group.

In the latest raid, eyewitnesses saw soldiers taking away 27 people away from a house in Shwe Pyi Tha Township at 1pm on 6 January.

“I think some informants reported them to the police. The brokers must have taken money from these people, but they did not take care of them,” said a man who commiserated with the victims. Twenty men, including an eight-year-old boy, and seven women were taken away in a prison van, he said.

Neighbours reportedly reported them to the police after they heard them speaking in a different language.

A regime-controlled television station has called them “illegal Bengalis”, a racist term for the Rohingya that implies they are from Bangladesh, although most of them were born in Burma and their parents are also from that country.

Earlier, the authorities arrested 109 Rohingya in Yangon Region. According to human rights groups, 23 were arrested in Ward 4 of Mayangon Township on 3 January, 77 in Myo Houng Ashay Ward in Than Lyin Township on 2 January, and 9 Rohingya, including two brokers, were arrested near Toe Kyaung Kalay Railway Station in East Dagon Township on 1 January.

Under the previous government of Aung San Suu Kyi, some Rohingya arrested by the authorities were sent back to their villages in Rakhine State, but under the regime they are more likely to end up in prison. Since the coup, 300 people have already been sent away for 2 to 5 years.

According to sources close to the police, over 150 Rohingya who had travelled to the Irrawaddy Region from Rakhine State were sentenced to two years imprisonment for violating the Immigration Act last year.