A London-based rights group criticized Thursday (Jul 11) Myanmar’s National Verification Card (NVC) process, calling it a “barrier to Rohingya return," reports Turkish news agency Anadolu.

The process aims to “further marginalize the Rohingya”, Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) said in a report.

"It [NVC] ultimately enhances apartheid conditions in Rakhine State,” the group said.

The Myanmar government has long been pushing the Rohingyas to accept NVC, claiming that it will enable them with access to public services.

However, the Rohingyas have repeatedly rejected it saying the move would exacerbate their sufferings as the NVC appears to identify them as Bengali, rejecting their original ethnic identity Rohingya.

The report titled, "NVC: A Barrier To Rohingya Repatriation" was prepared in cooperation with Queen Mary University of London’s International State Crime Initiative.

“[It] disputes claims by the administration of Myanmar that the NVC is being used as a stepping stone to citizenship for the Rohingya,” read the report.

“The NVC has been in use for years as a tool to identify Rohingya as foreigners and they have not received any greater rights as a result,” Kyaw Win, BHRN executive director, said.

Win asked the international community to insist Myanmar to grant full citizenship and full rights for the Rohingya.

The BHRN statement also said that interviews done with Rohingya showed that Buddhist-majority authorities continued to “exert pressure on Rohingya to accept the NVC, either with threats or [face] denial of ‘incentives’”.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed to Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, extending the figure of the persecuted people here more than 1.1 million.