The two men had been accused of killing a ruling party official but activists say the shooting appeared to be staged
Two Rohingya refugees were shot dead by Bangladesh police during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday after they were accused of killing a ruling party official, police said.
Nearly one million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh; 740,000 fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Continue reading...Displaced families selected for repatriation say they will not go back, with lack of citizenship a sticking point
Muslim Rohingyas housed in sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh are refusing to return to Myanmar, United Nations and local officials have said.
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Abul Kalam, said on Tuesday that only 21 families out of 1,056 selected for repatriation were willing to be interviewed by officials about whether they wish to return.
Continue reading...A fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, destroying thousands of shanty homes. No one was killed. Many residents had left their homes to celebrate Eid al-Adha with their families, and some of those left homeless took refuge in schools closed for the holiday
• Bangladesh fire leaves 10,000 homeless
Continue reading...Fire broke out in Dhaka’s Mirpur district on Friday, destroying almost 2,000 tin shacks, officials say
At least 10,000 people are homeless after a massive fire swept through a crowded slum in the Bangladesh capital and destroyed thousands of shanties, officials said on Sunday.
The fire broke out at in Dhaka’s Mirpur neighbourhood late on Friday and razed around 2,000 mostly tin shacks, fire services official Ershad Hossain said.
Continue reading...Police use loudspeakers to counter online reports that children were being killed for bridge-building project
Eight people have been killed in vigilante lynchings in Bangladesh, sparked by rumours on social media of children being kidnapped and sacrificed as offerings for the construction of a mega-bridge, police said on Wednesday.
The victims – who include two women – were targeted by angry mobs over the rumours, spread mostly on Facebook, that said human heads were required for the massive $3bn project, police chief Javed Patwary said in Dhaka. “We have analysed every single case of these eight killings. Those who were killed by lynching mobs – no one was a child kidnapper.”
Continue reading...Foreign affairs minister defends controversial proposal as ‘only solution’ despite misgivings of human rights campaigners
The first Rohingya refugees could be relocated to an island in the next few months under controversial plans drawn up by the Bangladesh government, the country’s state minister of foreign affairs has said.
Some of the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar and are now living in camps in Cox’s Bazar will be relocated to the silt island of Bhasan Char in the estuary of Bangladesh’s Meghna river, accessible only by boat.
Continue reading...Millions displaced in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with Assam and Bihar among the worst-hit regions
More than 100 people have been killed and millions more affected by devastating floods and landslides across India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
In the Indian state of Assam, among the worst hit areas, agencies were working on a war footing to deal with the situation, the chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, said.
Continue reading...After five years in the brothel, Labonni stopped dreaming of being rescued. Ever since she had been sold to a madam at 13 years old, customers had promised to help her escape. None had followed through. Over time, their faces began to blur together, so she couldn’t remember exactly who had visited before, or how many men had come by that day. There’s usually one every hour, starting from 9am.
“Sometimes I wake up and I don’t understand why I’m not dead yet,” she says.
Continue reading...Relatives say more than 30 people stuck at sea told to go home or lose food and water
More than 30 migrants from Bangladesh who were trapped on a merchant ship off Tunisia for three weeks have been sent back to their home country against their will, according to relatives.
They were among 75 migrants rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601, an Egyptian tugboat that services offshore oil platforms, only to spend the next 20 days at sea near the Tunisian coast.
Continue reading...Group of 75 people survive prolonged ordeal but could now be made to leave Tunisia
A group of migrants who spent nearly three weeks trapped onboard a merchant ship in torrid conditions face possible deportation to their home countries after they were finally allowed to disembark in Tunisia, aid groups have warned.
The 75 migrants, about half of whom are minors or unaccompanied children, were rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601 only to spend the next 20 days at sea as European authorities refused to let them land.
Continue reading...Family lawyer says chances of Begum being sent to country are ‘vanishingly remote’
Shamima Begum could face the death penalty for involvement in terrorism if she goes to Bangladesh, the country’s foreign minister has said.
However, her family’s lawyer said the chances of her being sent to her parents’ country of origin were “vanishingly remote”.
Continue reading...More than two million people in at-risk areas in two countries were moved into shelters
The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 15 people in the eastern state of Odisha, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday, where more than a million people have been moved to safety.
After hitting land, Cyclone Fani lost some of its power and was downgraded to a deep depression by the India Meteorological Department.
Continue reading...From violence and harassment to the pursuit of simple pleasures like playing football or riding a bicycle, women in Bangladesh encounter innumerable obstacles. Here, those on the frontline of that struggle discuss the challenges they have faced and the hurdles that remain
Girls in Bangladesh talk their way out of forced marriage
All photographs by Muhammad Murtada/British Council
Continue reading...A project in Bangladesh’s Narsingdi district is one of several making inroads on women’s rights, despite a wider conservative backlash that has proved deadly
When Modina Begum heard that a 13-year-old girl in her village in central Bangladesh was about to be married off, she went straight to the girl’s parents and persuaded them to cancel the wedding, rescuing the teenager from a fate Begum herself had escaped.
“I convinced my parents to call off my own marriage, let me finish my studies and become self-reliant before getting married,” says Begum, now 19, as she leads a group of girls in English and digital skills at the Edge club in Narsingdi district, 50 kilometres north-east of the capital, Dhaka. “Now my parents have faith in me and I have the confidence to speak out for others.”
Continue reading...Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused with kerosene and burned at her school, dying 10 days later of her injuries
A teenage Bangladeshi girl who reported being sexually harassed has died after being set on fire at school. Police and school authorities had ignored her complaints.
The murder of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in Feni on 6 April, followed her allegations of sexual harassment against her headteacher two weeks before. Nusrat suffered 80% burns to her body and died 10 days later from her injuries.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government’s own data shows no factory it inspects has eliminated high-risk safety hazards
Bangladesh’s government could assume responsibility for safety in workplaces producing clothing for major western brands this week despite demonstrating a “shocking level of unreadiness” to do so, according to an analysis of the state’s own data.
The country’s supreme court is scheduled to decide on Sunday whether to kick out the Bangladesh accord on building and fire safety, an international initiative to remove life-threatening hazards from factories that was put in place after the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in which more 1,100 people died.
Continue reading...Authorities say complex had no fire-protected staircases and top floors were illegally constructed
Police in Bangladesh’s capital arrested two of the owners of a commercial complex that caught fire last week, killing 26 people and injuring about 70, an official said.
Deputy police commissioner Shahjahan Shaju said early on Sunday that they arrested FR Tower’s owners Tasvir-ul-Islam and SMHI Faruque in Dhaka after police charged them with negligence and violations of a building code that resulted in casualties. In cases where deaths occur as a result of negligence, defendants also usually face culpable homicide charges.
Continue reading...At least 19 people killed, say officials, including six who jumped from 22-floor building
Desperate workers have jumped to their deaths as a huge fire tore through a Dhaka office block, killing at least 19 people and trapping others in the latest major inferno to hit the Bangladesh capital.
Rescue workers warned the death toll could rise sharply as fire fighters recovered charred bodies from the complex where an unknown number of office workers were engulfed by intense smoke and flames.
Continue reading...A huge fire has torn through a 19-storey office building in the commercial area of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, prompting some people to climb down the exterior of the building. People were seen shouting for help from windows, with many office workers feared to be trapped inside
Continue reading...At its best, social work can break cycles of crisis, and help people change their lives and communities
Too often, social services are designed as rotating doors. They focus on individuals in crisis who, when the symptoms of the emergency have eased, are sent directly back to the stressful situation that caused all the damage – a painful, costly and tragic cycle.
There is little focus in formal social services on helping people to transform their environments to provide ongoing support and love, let alone engaging people to become advocates for their rights. Yet outside these limitations, social workers are supporting connections in communities designed to last people’s whole lifetimes. In many countries we call it “working beyond services”. There are countless examples around the world.
Continue reading...