In the 1970s, the Burmese government started to confiscate National Registration Cards from the Rohingya community as a way to slowly erase Rohingya claims to citizenship. Rohingya like Salai Ahmed (center) secretly kept their original cards at great personal risk.
“My grandfather was a village headman for almost 40 years. He was an Arabic schoolteacher. He was respected by many people and was a member of the local council. My family owned a lot of land and we have lived in Maungdaw for several generations.”
Rohim Ullah, grandson of Salai Ahmed.
On March 5, 2023, a fire destroyed a section of the Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Over 2,000 shelters were destroyed. All of the family documents Mohammed Yunus (79) carried with him when he fled Burma in 2017 were destroyed.
Along with shelters, the fires destroy the last remaining evidence many Rohingya families possess of their family history and connection to Burma.
“Nearly all the documents of my family were destroyed in the fire. The documents go back over 80 years.”
Mohammed Y (79)
Ershat H (57), 2023