The policeman manning the barbed-wire roadblock at the entrance to Bhumi Quarter in Sittwe spells out the rules: if Rohingya try to leave without a permit, they are apprehended and taken back to their homes. Asked if Rakhine are treated the same, he smiles ruefully and shakes his head. This block of homes, in the capital of western Burma’s Rakhine State, is one of several Muslim-majority neighbourhoods that have been transformed into de facto open-air prisons, with the movement of their inhabitants tightly restricted by armed guards.