Waiting to be Registered
Sheikh Rajibul Islam | Middle Badda, Bangladesh
Organization: Freelancer
Photographer: Sheikh Rajibul Islam
Organization: Freelancer
Exhibit Title: Waiting to be Registered
Location: Middle Badda, Bangladesh
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority originating from Myanmar, are denied citizenship and suffer persecution and discrimination in Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh. Thousands of unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp, Bangladesh, are being forcibly displaced from their homes, in an act of intimidation and abuse by the local authorities. To date, an estimated 25,000 people have flocked to the Kutupalong makeshift camp hoping for recognition and assistance. Instead of finding help, they have been told that they cannot live next to the official camp, supported by the Bangladesh Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Nor can they legally live on adjacent Forestry Department land. They have nowhere to go and no way to meet their basic needs. Denied citizenship in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes to seek refuge abroad. Few have been granted refugee status. The majority struggle to survive, unrecognized and unassisted in Bangladesh.
When I first visited the camp in Kutupalong, I saw that the area where they are living, making a small slum, is so dirty that no human being can live in that place. In a 8' X 6' house more than five people are sleeping and there is no sanitary toilet there. Hundreds of people are waiting to go to their work. But they can’t because the Police and BDR (Border military) are arresting the unregistered people. And they are pushing them back to the Myanmar side. But the Myanmar military (NASAKA) shoot if they find any people crossing the border. These people have nowhere to go. They have no food,no land and no identity.
MSF & UNHCR
Sheikh Rajibul Islam
Cell: (+88) 01819992067
Home Address: Flat no 7c, Khanikashoi Apt, 174/1, Shahadat Shoroni, Middle Badda, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh.
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