The Disowned and the Denied - Part 1

Saiful Huq Omi is a photographer based in the Dhaka City, Bangladesh. His project, "The Disowned and the Denied" focuses on the Rohingya refugees who escaped from Burma in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Bradford, UK. 

Many thanks to the Magnum foundation for the permitted use of Salif’s interview and Salif himself for the powerful photography that he brings to NGOinsider.com.

The Rohingya are a Muslim community of South Asian descent, closely related to the Chittagonian Bengali of neighboring Bangladesh. They are an ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority in Burma. Approximately one million Rohingya live in the Arakan state of Burma today, and over 700,000 of them are concentrated in the northern region. Despite the large numbers of Rohingya in Burma, there may be even more Rohingya living outside Burma in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and elsewhere. 

The 1982 Citizenship law of Burma stripped the Rohingya of their nationality, making them legally stateless. Furthermore, the Burmese Government refuses to recognize the existence of a Rohingya ethnic community. Since then, this law has been the basis for discriminatory practices against the Rohingya people of Burma. As a result, their human rights and basic freedoms have been systematically eroded through a series of draconian policies and arbitrary taxes. 

 All images below are subject to copyright and should not be republished without permission of the photographer.

''Because they are stateless they have to travel illegally, and are thus targeted as illegal migrants and often become victims of arbitrary detention, deportation, extortion, trafficking and smuggling.''

''Rohingya refugees live a life of fear in Bangladesh. They fear being forced to return to Myanmar, they fear being mistreated by the local Bangladeshis, they fear being raped, they fear being arrested, and they fear starvation.''

''Every month hundreds of Rohingya children are born in Bangladesh. They have names but they do not have a country that they can call their own.''

''I guess that every refugee crisis is unique in its own way, and comes with its own specific set of challenges. The Rohingya crisis is unique because it hasn't resulted from a war or natural disaster. It is instead the result of the entrenched and institutionalized long-term racist policies of a country which has stripped the Rohingya of their nationality and increasingly clamped down on their rights and freedoms.''

''Like all peoples who have been subject to extreme poverty and injustice over a sustained period of time, the Rohingya are often too caught up in their struggle to survive and do not have the luxury of thinking about the bigger picture and forming a unified movement. Even if they were able to self-organize, they would find it extremely difficult to make an impression due to their irregular status in most countries, and their absolute vulnerability as a result.''

''The Rohingya who flee Burma to escape persecution and find better economic prospects are most often viewed as economic immigrants even though they are both stateless and refugees.''

Please take a moment to see the work of Saiful Huq Omi and the Magnum foundation: The Magnum foundation

In part 2 we will bring to you the article from a different perspective. The Rohingya's who have been displaced. Check back late this week for part two of the article.

The Disowned and the Denied - Part 1

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