A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia
Continue reading...Category Archives: Bangladesh
‘We have more in common than what separates us’: refugee stories, told by refugees
In One Thousand Dreams, award-winning photographer Robin Hammond hands the camera to refugees. Often reduced by the media’s toxic or well-meaning narratives, the portraits and interviews capture a different and more complex tale
Robin Hammond has spent two decades crisscrossing the developing world and telling other people’s stories. From photographing the Rohingya forced out of Myanmar and rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to documenting the lives of people in countries where their sexuality is illegal, his work has earned him award after award.
But for his latest project the photographer has embarked on a paradigm shift: to remove himself – and others like him – from the process entirely. Instead, as part of an in-depth exploration of the refugee experience in Europe, the stories of those featured are told by those who, arguably, know them best: other refugees.
Continue reading...UN put Rohingya ‘at risk’ by sharing data without consent, says rights group
Refugees tell Human Rights Watch they fear forced repatriation and persecution after personal details passed on to Myanmar
The UN may have put hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees at risk of persecution or involuntary repatriation back to Myanmar after improperly collecting and sharing refugees’ personal information with Bangladesh, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is urging an investigation.
Over the past three years, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has registered more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladeshi camps in order to provide them with identity cards needed to access essential aid and services.
Continue reading...UK aid cuts to Bangladesh NGO a ‘gut punch’, says charity head
Withdrawal from long-term partnership catastrophic, says Brac, affecting women and girls’ education and those in extreme poverty
The UK government’s funding cuts to the world’s largest international non-governmental organisation are a “gut punch” after a successful 10-year £450m partnership, according to a director.
Asif Saleh, executive director of Brac Bangladesh, said the cuts will leave hundreds of thousands of girls without an education, millions of women and girls without access to family planning and hundreds of thousands of people in extreme poverty without support.
Continue reading...UK foreign aid cuts ‘will leave 100,000 refugees without water’
Aid agencies write to Foreign Office minister as pressure grows on Boris Johnson ahead of Commons vote
UK aid cuts of 42% will leave about 70,000 people without health services and 100,000 without water in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, before the deadly cyclone season, the Foreign Office minister for Asia has been warned.
A private letter sent to him last week by a group of aid agencies working in the area comes before a vote on Monday designed to force ministers to guarantee they will restore UK aid to 0.7% of gross national income next year.
Continue reading...Gaza damage and Glasgow raids: human rights this fortnight in pictures
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru
Continue reading...UK accused of a ‘abandoning’ Rohingya with ‘catastrophic’ 40% aid cut
Children in overcrowded Cox’s Bazar settlement likely to suffer most from reduced humanitarian spending, say campaigners
The government has been accused of abandoning Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh after cutting aid to the humanitarian response by more than 40%.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) pledged £27.6m to the humanitarian sector’s joint response plan launched this week, compared with £47.5m last year.
Continue reading...Covid vaccines: India export delay deals blow to poorer countries
Efforts in Africa and elsewhere hit by decision not to export AstraZeneca jab until end of year
Vaccine programmes across Africa and much of the developing world will suffer big delays after the world’s biggest producer said it would not be exporting the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine until the end of the year.
“We continue to scale up manufacturing and prioritise India … We also hope to start delivering to Covax and other countries by the end of this year,” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), said in a statement on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Bangladeshi journalist arrested and charged over alleged document theft
Rozina Islam’s family claim reporter was assaulted and subject to ‘mental torture’ by officials
One of Bangladesh’s most prominent investigative journalists, known for her anti-corruption reporting and criticism of the government’s response to Covid-19, has been arrested and charged under the country’s Official Secrets Act.
Rozina Islam, 42, a senior investigative journalist at the Bengali daily Prothom Alo appeared before a Dhaka court on Tuesday morning charged with stealing official health ministry documents . The court turned down the police’s appeal that she be remanded in their custody to be interrogated.
Continue reading...Child marriage ‘thriving in UK’ due to legal loophole, warn rights groups
In a letter to the PM campaigners say forced marriage law fails to protect young people
A legal loophole that allows 16- and 17-year-olds in England and Wales to marry with parental consent is being exploited and used to coerce young people into child marriage, campaigners have warned.
More than 20 organisations have signed a letter to the prime minister insisting current forced marriage law does not go far enough in protecting young people.
Continue reading...Act now to prevent oxygen shortage in Covid-hit countries, say campaigners
Focus on vaccines and tests has been obscuring the need for oxygen in low- and middle-income countries
The scenes in India of families desperately searching for oxygen for critically ill Covid patients will be repeated in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other countries in Africa and around the world unless a significant international effort is made to ensure all countries have good oxygen supplies, campaigners have said.
The focus on vaccines and tests, while important, has been obscuring the need for oxygen, which is cheap and readily available in high-income countries but in short supply elsewhere, they say. Before India, there was similarly shocking footage from Manaus in Brazil where distressed relatives pleaded for oxygen to keep a family member alive.
Continue reading...Rape victims in south Asia still face vaginal tests, report finds
Unscientific ‘morality’ examination linked to low conviction rates and violates women’s rights, says Equality Now
Physical vaginal tests are still used to determine whether women and girls have been raped in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, according to a new report.
The practice remains widespread in all three countries and some courts refer to the test in judgments, despite it having no scientific basis and being banned in India.
Continue reading...UK south-Asian diaspora despairs as India joins Covid red list
With travel from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh banned, some UK families are stuck abroad, while others cannot visit frail relatives
For the past 17 months, Saurav Dutt has had to watch from afar as relatives were lost to Covid, ancestral homes were damaged by a typhoon, and the mental toll of isolation, grief and illness led elders to question their very existence.
He had flights booked for May, but with cases soaring and India on the UK’s travel red list from 23 April, that is no longer an option. “It’s a very worrying time,” Dutt said. “You would think there are a million ways to help from over here, but we’re handcuffed. To deal with these things we need to be there.”
Continue reading...Five people killed as police fire at protesting workers in Bangladesh
Employees were demanding unpaid wages and a pay rise at a Chinese-backed power plant, officials and police said
At least five people were killed and dozens injured in Bangladesh after police opened fire on a crowd of workers protesting to demand unpaid wages and a pay rise at a Chinese-backed power plant, officials and police said.
Police opened fire after about 2,000 of the protesters began hurling bricks and stones at officers at the construction site of the coal-fired plant in the south-eastern city of Chittagong, local police official Azizul Islam told Reuters.
Continue reading...‘Out of Trump playbook’: UK accused of ‘abandoning’ women with cuts to aid
Charity warns of 22,000 additional deaths in poorest countries if Wish reproductive health programme ends
The director of a leading sexual and reproductive health charity has accused the government of “abandoning” women and girls it promised to help, as aid cuts derail a leading Tory programme to reduce maternal deaths and prevent unsafe abortions in poor countries.
The threat to the women’s integrated sexual health (Wish) programme could mean 7.5m additional unintended pregnancies, 2.7m unsafe abortions and 22,000 maternal deaths over the next year, said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, director general of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Continue reading...‘Reclaim These Streets’ and rubber duck rallies: human rights roundup – in pictures
Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand
Continue reading...‘Bangladesh has come a long way’: people of Dhaka on half a century of independence
A rickshaw rider, a domestic worker, a student and a photographer on how their lives have changed
Habibur Rahman, 48, rickshaw rider
Continue reading...The making of a megacity: how Dhaka transformed in 50 years of Bangladesh
In the half century since independence, the capital has grown from peaceful town to economic hub. But does it live up to the dreams of those still flocking to work there?
On the banks of the Buriganga, Old Dhaka’s boatmen only ever rest a moment before making their return journey, endlessly ferrying passengers back and forth across the river.
They pick them up at the Sadarghat docks, the historical trading hub that helped build the city, and row them towards the sprawling suburbs that have crept across what used to be open farmland two decades ago.
Continue reading...‘I’ve lost everything once again’: Rohingya recount horror of Cox’s Bazar blaze
Refugees caught up in the deadly blaze describe panic and despair after fire tore through the Balukhali area on Monday
Marium Khatun, 40, was feeding her 10-month-old son at home when she first saw the fire and smoke nearby. Realising a huge blaze was ripping through the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp just metres from her two-room shack, she panicked.
“I suddenly noticed people were running, scattered on the road in front of my house. I came to the door and saw this huge fire around 30 metres (100ft) away from my house. I couldn’t think straight.
Continue reading...Hundreds of people missing after Rohingya refugee camp fire
At least 15 people killed as blaze spread across Bangladesh camp of about 124,000 refugees from Myanmar
Hundreds of people are missing with at least 15 confirmed dead, including three children, after a fire tore through a camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The toll was exacerbated by barbed wire fencing that caged refuges into areas of the sprawling Balukhali camp that were going up in flames, aid workers said.
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