A fire broke out in Kutupalong Bazar around 2.30am of April 2nd. Three Rohingya refugees burned to death. There are rumours that they were found in a locked shop. Several Rohingya-owned shops were destroyed, including stock worth thousands of dollars. The fire was finally brought under control after three hours. …

26th March 2021: A very large fire engulfed Rohingya refugee camps 8E, 8W and 9 on 22nd, March 2021. The presence of 111km of barbed wire fencing, installed by the Bangladesh army, hindered escape from the inferno. See the images below where refugees tore down the fencing in order to…

Speech by Shafiur Rahman at the Oxford Human Rights Festival Launch, 11 March 2021 Thanks very much for the opportunity to address the Oxford Human Rights Festival. I am going to be talking about refugees . And specifically I am going to be talking about refugees from western Myanmar called Rohingya. Over the last four decades, Rohingya have been subject to persistent human rights violations, and repeated mass expulsions from the country. About a million Rohingya live in the refugee camps of Bangladesh. I have been involved with them for four years now and last year I held a photographic competition. This evening, I want to share with you my thoughts about that competition.

On the morning of 28th December 2020, an award-winning photographer and Rohingya refugee, Abul Kalam, set out to take photographs of buses departing the Kutupalong camps for Bhasan Char. He was apprehended and then taken to the Camp-in-Charge in Camp 2W Block D5 of Kutupalong and subsequently to the Camp-in-Charge of Kutupalong Registered Camp. He was reportedly beaten when he was apprehended. Abul Kalam was detained at the Kutupalong police barracks until late afternoon of Wednesday 30th December. According to Bangladeshi law, a person in custody should be brought before the courts within 24 hours. This was not the case for Abul Kalam and, at the time of writing, he has been…

Republished in South East Asia Globe Just two months ago, a flurry of videos about Bhasan Char began appearing in Bangladeshi media. There was a coordinated production of what can only be described as infomercials about the island. The videos all followed a similar script: Reporters, including some well established presenters, would arrive, sniff the sea air, admire the sheep/livestock and watch the waddling geese. Copious amounts of supplied drone footage wowed the viewer. Overall, the idea was to woo the audience with soothing background music and visuals of a rural idyll interspersed with effusive commentary. Indeed in one video, the architect of the place calls Bhasan Char a “paradise” built for the “lucky” Rohingya.

A collection of photographs of Mr Enuga S. Reddy, Anti-Apartheid campaigner. If you wish to use these for publication or other purposes, I will be happy to provide you with a high resolution image…

Mr Enuga S. Reddy, a former UN Assistant Secretary General and Chairman of the Special Committee Against Apartheid, passed away on 1 November 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Aside from his pre-eminent role in organising the worldwide campaign against apartheid, Mr Reddy also authored and edited books and articles on…

Background to the Registered v Unregistered Kutupalong Refugee Camp violence A version of this article was published in the Dhaka Tribune In the first week of October 2020, a certain number of Rohingya refugee camps in Kutupalong became battlegrounds. Around two thousand people left their shelters and sought refuge in…

How a former Myanmar military man, who converted to Islam & married a Rohingya woman, escaped from Tula Toli. Podcast with Mabia, his widow The carnage that took place in Tula Toli in Myanmar on 30 August 2017 has produced some remarkable stories of survival and defiance. One of these…