Aid workers face high risk of detention in Myanmar

State forces in Myanmar have increased the use of detentions and arrests to control and intimidate aid workers. The new detention category in the AWSD records 242 aid worker arrests and detentions over the past five years, though the real figures are likely much higher. Shrinking civil society and the persecution of journalists and human rights monitors since the 2021 coup have made documenting abuses extremely difficult, resulting in artificially low incident numbers.