Category Archives: Bangladesh

Nusrat Jahan Rafi: 16 sentenced to death over Bangladesh murder

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Student set on fire after refusing to withdraw sexual harassment claim against headteacher

Sixteen Bangladeshis have been sentenced to death for the murder of a 19-year-old student, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was burned to death in April after complaining of being sexually harassed by her school principal.

Among those found guilty were former members of the school’s administration, teachers and pupils – 12 of the 16 having confessed to participating in the killing in which Rafi was lured on to the school’s roof, doused in paraffin and set alight.

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Workers making £88 Lululemon leggings claim they are beaten

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Exclusive: Upmarket brand, which has just launched UN partnership, opens investigation as female labourers in Bangladesh factory say they suffer regular abuse

Lululemon, an athleisure brand whose £88 leggings are worn by celebrities and Instagram influencers, are sourcing clothing from a factory where Bangladeshi female factory workers claim they are beaten and physically assaulted.

The Canadian brand recently launched a partnership with the United Nations to reduce stress levels and promote the mental health of aid workers.

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Five-year-old boy among 30 Rohingya arrested for travelling in Myanmar

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Nine children sent to juvenile detention centres as remainder of group face up to two years in prison for failure to produce ID cards

Myanmar faces calls to release 30 Rohingya men, women and children arrested in September while trying to travel from Rakhine state to the city of Yangon.

A total of 21 Rohingya face up to two years in jail under Myanmar’s Residents of Burma Registration Act, which stipulates that citizens must be in possession of “registration cards” to prove their identity.

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How the Bangladeshi women who make our clothes are edging towards a better life | Fiona Weber-Steinhaus

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The country has undergone an economic miracle in recent years, albeit at huge cost to its garment workers. But things are finally starting to improve for them

Tasnia Akter has come home. It’s a public holiday in Bangladesh, the one time of year the 25-year-old can leave the mayhem of the city behind and see her family: her mother, her aunt.

And her daughter.

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Bangladesh imposes mobile phone blackout in Rohingya refugee camps

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Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar face prospect of further isolation as government orders operators to shut down services

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in refugee camps in Bangladesh face a communications blackout after the government ordered a ban on mobile phone services and sim cards.

The country’s telecommunications regulatory body cited security fears and illegal mobile use as it ordered operators to shut down services in the overcrowded camps in the south-eastern border district of Cox’s Bazar by next Sunday.

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UN migration agency accused of pressuring Bangladeshis to return home

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Complaint against International Organization of Migration of ‘severe concerns’ over treatment of rescued migrants in Tunisia

The UN migration agency is the subject of a formal complaint after “severe concerns” were raised about its treatment of Bangladeshi migrants, including children.

A Tunis-based NGO, Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES), filed a complaint to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) this month, after migrants alleged officials and diplomats had put pressure on them to return home following weeks at sea.

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Rohingya refugees shot dead by Bangladesh police during gunfight

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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.

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‘Not without our rights’: Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar

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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.

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Thousands left homeless after blaze destroys slum in Bangladesh – video

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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

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Bangladesh fire leaves 10,000 homeless after blaze razes slum

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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.

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Bangladesh: eight lynched over false rumours of child sacrifices

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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.”

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Bangladesh prepares to move Rohingya to island at risk of floods and cyclones

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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.

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Death toll from floods in south Asia rises to more than 100

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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.

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The living hell of children trapped in Dhaka’s brothels

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Sold by traffickers, enslaved for years and raped many times a day … this is the life of tens of thousands of underage girls in Bangladesh’s capital. We hear their stories.

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.

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Bangladeshi migrants in Tunisia forced to return home, aid groups claim

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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.

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Migrants stranded at sea for three weeks now risk deportation, aid groups warn

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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.

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Shamima Begum would face death penalty in Bangladesh, says minister

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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”.

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Cyclone Fani hits Bangladesh after killing 15 in India

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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.

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‘Say no to child marriage’: Bangladeshi women fight for equality – in pictures

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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

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Girls in Bangladesh learn to talk their way out of forced marriage

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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.”

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