Just over 18 months ago, just 15, Abul left his family behind and escaped to Malaysia in the hope of building a better life. But Malaysia does not recognize Rohingya or other people fleeing to the country as refugees, and, without documents and forbidden from going to school or working, he lives in constant fear of being arrested.

“Ever since I arrived, I’ve been afraid,” he said. “I don’t go outside of the house if I don’t need to… I’m afraid of police and of being arrested.”

Abul has good reason to feel afraid. Just this week, human rights groups condemned a poster by Malaysia’s immigration department that portrayed Rohingya refugees as a national security threat. It came shortly after the government announced that it would detain undocumented refugees.

It’s a story that is familiar to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children across Asia, who are forced to live in the fringes of society – a situation that can and should not continue. As long as they cannot safely return to their homes in Myanmar, their safety must be protected by the authorities in their countries of refuge.

There are at least 700,000 Rohingya children across the continent – the majority of whom live outside their home country, Myanmar. Most notable are the half a million children living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled to from Myanmar to escape violence by the Myanmar military in 2017.

This was just the latest chapter in a long story of abuse – for decades, large numbers of Rohingya have sought refuge in other Asian countries.

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