Rohingya refugees win prestigious UN award for storytelling about camp life

Rohingya refugees win prestigious UN award for storytelling about camp life
Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan, Shahida Win, and Abdullah Habib, winners of the 2023 Nansen Refugee Award for Asia and the Pacific, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. (UNHCR)
Short Url
Updated 14 December 2023
Follow

Rohingya refugees win prestigious UN award for storytelling about camp life

Rohingya refugees win prestigious UN award for storytelling about camp life
  • UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award recognizes those who help displaced and stateless people
  • Winners say documenting their community’s life is an attempt to save it from being forgotten

DHAKA: Four Rohingya refugees have won the 2023 Nansen Refugee Award in the Asia and Pacific category for using audiovisual art to document their experiences of statelessness and living in camps in Bangladesh.

The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award was established in 1954 to recognize individuals or groups for their work helping displaced and stateless people. It is named after Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian scientist and diplomat who became the first high commissioner for refugees at the League of Nations in 1921.

Rohingya refugees Abdullah Habib, Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan and Shahida Win, who have been documenting the life of Rohingya with their smartphones and cameras, were awarded the prestigious UN prize for “portraying the lives of their fellow refugees truthfully and with empathy,” the UNHCR said in a statement on Thursday.

The winners, all in their 20s and early 30s, are living in squalid and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh’s southeast.

The coastal district, which has for decades given shelter to Rohingya fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar, has become the world’s largest refugee settlement with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of them following the 2017 Myanmarese military crackdown.

Their return to Myanmar has been on the agenda for years, but a UN-backed repatriation process has not taken off until now, despite pressure from Bangladesh amid dwindling financial support to host the large community.

“As I am documenting and telling the story of the Rohingya refugees, I find every story painful ... I see their dreams and hopes shattered,” one of the awardees, photographer and documentary filmmaker Habib, told Arab News.

“The young children and newborn babies, I see them prisoners by birth.”

Storytelling is for him a way to save his community from being forgotten.

“I want to keep reminding people around the world about our struggle life and to make them feel empathy for us, to see our resilience and strength,” he said.

“We are very concerned that people around the world will forget us easily if we don’t keep sharing our stories.”

Khan, another awardee, who works as an emergency preparedness trainer, has spent his whole life in Cox’s Bazar.

“I understand the people’s suffering and agony in this camp life very well. I know the pain of refugee life ... I believe in making a change with my photos,” he said.

“The aim of my photography is documenting ... I want to enlighten the next generation about our lives, and I want to make people from other communities aware of our everyday struggle and challenges.”




In this photo by Salim Khan, one of the winners of the 2023 Nansen Refugee Award, Rohingya women are seen carrying firewood at a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. (Salim Khan)

Hero, a community volunteer and researcher at the International Organization for Migration, has been involved in photography since 2015, when he was living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

He was initially a sports photographer before he arrived in Cox’s Bazar with his family in 2017.

“Children in the camp have no future and access to formal education. There are huge health crises here ... If anyone from a family gets any major disease like cancer, they can’t get treatment here, and they can’t afford treatment outside,” he said.

“I want to show to the world that our situation is very bad here. We have been suffering in the camps for the past six years. Our lives and hopes have been destroyed. If the world and international community forget us, it will be a great loss for world humanity. We don’t want to be treated as a forgotten community. The world should recognize us as human beings.”

Win, the only woman among the four winners, shares the same hope for the impact of her work. She also wants her photography to serve as a means to empower other women.

“In our community, girls are not allowed to go out of home. Despite this, I used to go out to learn the stories of our people ... I wanted to make the international community know that we are also able to do storytelling,” she told Arab News.

“The world doesn’t know about the struggle of women in the camps ... If we don’t tell our stories, people will not know the actual situation. Since many media don’t come here, we have to tell these stories ourselves.”


Children killed in Mozambique election violence: HRW

Children killed in Mozambique election violence: HRW
Updated 10 sec ago
Follow

Children killed in Mozambique election violence: HRW

Children killed in Mozambique election violence: HRW
  • The southern African nation has been rocked by unrest since an October 9 vote won by the ruling Frelimo party
  • Thousands of people have demonstrated across the country in recent weeks in protests brutally suppressed by the police
JOHANNESBURG: Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that Mozambican security forces killed at least 10 children and injured dozens more in post-election violence.
The southern African nation has been rocked by unrest since an October 9 vote won by the ruling Frelimo party in power since independence but contested by the opposition.
Thousands of people have demonstrated across the country in recent weeks in protests brutally suppressed by the police.
One 13-year-old girl was “caught in a crowd of people fleeing tear gas and gunfire... One of the bullets hit her in the neck, and she instantly fell to the ground and died,” HRW said in a statement.
The rights group said it had documented “nine additional cases of children killed and at least 36 other children injured by gunfire during the protests.”
The authorities have not responded to HRW’s claims.
Police have also detained “hundreds of children, in many cases for days, without notifying their families, in violation of international human rights law,” HRW said.
President Filipe Nyusi, who is due to step down in January, condemned an “attempt to install chaos in our country” in a state of the nation address last week.
He said that 19 people had been killed in the recent clashes, five of them from the police force. More than 800 people were injured, including 66 police, he added.
Civil society groups recorded a higher death toll — with more than 67 people killed since the unrest began — and said that an estimated 2,000 others had been detained.
Nyusi, 65, has invited the main opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, for talks.
Mondlane, who came in second after Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, 47, but claims to have won, has been organizing most of the protests.
He said he would accept the president’s offer as long as the talks were held virtually and legal proceedings against him were dropped.
The 50-year-old is believed to have left the country for fear of arrest or attack but his whereabouts are unknown.

At least 22 Somalis dead after boats capsize off Madagascar, official says

At least 22 Somalis dead after boats capsize off Madagascar, official says
Updated 3 min 47 sec ago
Follow

At least 22 Somalis dead after boats capsize off Madagascar, official says

At least 22 Somalis dead after boats capsize off Madagascar, official says

MOGADISHU/ANTANANARIVO: At least 22 Somali citizens died when two migrant boats capsized off the coast of Madagascar over the weekend, Somalia’s Information Minister Daud Aweis said.
Madagascar’s Port, Maritime, and River Authority (APMF) said the boats had set sail from Somalia for the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Nov. 2, a journey of several hundred kilometers.
On Saturday, the port authority reported that local fishermen discovered the first boat drifting on Friday near Nosy Iranja. They rescued 25 people, including 10 men and 15 women, but seven occupants died, the authority said.
A second boat carrying 38 people arrived at Madagascar’s Port du Cratère, according to APMF. The maritime authority did not disclose a death toll for the second boat but confirmed the rescue of 23 people.
Somali Information Minister Aweis, citing information from his counterparts in Madagascar, confirmed the total death toll at 22.
“They were about 70 Somalis, 22 of them died. One boat was carrying 38 people and the other boat was carrying 32 people,” Aweis said on state-owned television late on Sunday.
In recent decades thousands of people have attempted to make the crossing to Mayotte, which has a higher standard of living and access to the French welfare system.
Mayotte is officially part of France, although Comoros claims it.
Aweis said Somalia will investigate where the boats sailed from, terming those who organized the trip as criminals involved in illicit immigration.
“This is also a message of warning to those who want to immigrate illegally before they go and die in such manner. It is unfortunate people still go despite danger,” he added.
In early November, at least 25 people died off Comoros islands after traffickers capsized their boat.


Charlotte airport workers plan to strike during busy Thanksgiving travel week

Charlotte airport workers plan to strike during busy Thanksgiving travel week
Updated 15 min 32 sec ago
Follow

Charlotte airport workers plan to strike during busy Thanksgiving travel week

Charlotte airport workers plan to strike during busy Thanksgiving travel week
  • Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage in North Carolina
  • Workers say they previously raised the alarm about their growing inability to afford basic necessities, including food and housing

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport plan to go on strike during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to protest what they say are unlivable wages.
Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage in North Carolina, which is set to begin Monday at 5 a.m.
Officials with Service Employees International Union announced the impending strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.”
ABM and Prospect Airport Services contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Workers say they previously raised the alarm about their growing inability to afford basic necessities, including food and housing. They described living paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover expenses like car repairs while performing jobs that keep countless planes running on schedule.
“We’re on strike today because this is our last resort. We can’t keep living like this,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement. “We’re taking action because our families can’t survive.”
Several hundred workers were expected to walk off the job and continue the work stoppage throughout Monday.
Most of them earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour, which is well below the living wage for a single person with no children in the Charlotte area, union officials said.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials have said this holiday travel season is expected to be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers departing the airport between last Thursday and the Monday after Thanksgiving.
In addition to walking off the job, striking workers plan to hold an 11 a.m. rally and a 1 p.m. “Strikesgiving” lunch “in place of the Thanksgiving meal that many of the workers won’t be able to afford later this week,” union officials said.
“Airport service workers make holiday travel possible by keeping airports safe, clean, and running,” the union said. “Despite their critical role in the profits that major corporations enjoy, many airport service workers must work two to three jobs to make ends meet.”
ABM said it would take steps to minimize disruptions from any demonstrations.
“At ABM, we appreciate the hard work our team members put in every day to support our clients and help keep spaces clean and people healthy,” the company said in a statement last week.
Prospect Airport Services said last week that the company recognizes the seriousness of the potential for a strike during the busy holiday travel season.


UK travel disrupted as Storm Bert fallout continues

UK travel disrupted as Storm Bert fallout continues
Updated 51 min 50 sec ago
Follow

UK travel disrupted as Storm Bert fallout continues

UK travel disrupted as Storm Bert fallout continues
  • There were more 200 flood warnings and flood alerts in place across England and Wales
LONDON: Britain’s roads and railways were hit by closures on Monday after Storm Bert battered the country over the weekend, causing widespread flooding and killing four people.
There were more 200 flood warnings and flood alerts in place across England and Wales, while trains from London to the southwest were canceled and rail services in central England were severely disrupted.
“Do not attempt to travel on any route today,” Great Western Railway, whose trains connect London to Bristol and Cornwall, said on X.
Amongst those killed during the storm include a dog walker who in North Wales, and a man who died when a tree hit his car in southern England.
Major roads in Northamptonshire and Bristol were closed, while fallen trees on rail lines cut off services between London and Stansted Airport, Britain’s fourth busiest hub.
The disruption comes after Storm Bert hit Britain late on Friday, bringing snow, rain and strong winds.
The Met Office kept a warning for strong winds in place for northern Scotland on Monday and said the storm would clear from that part of the country early on Tuesday.

DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1

DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1
Updated 25 November 2024
Follow

DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1

DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1
  • The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane

VILNIUS: A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house Monday morning near the Lithuanian capital, killing at least one person.
Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead. LRT said the aircraft smashed into a two-story home near the airport.
The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, to Vilnius Airport.”
It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.
DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached.
The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.