Salahuddin Ahmed 2018 Award for Potential
A Rohingya ethnic minority woman is crying at the time she got down from the boat to shore of Shah Porir Dwip after fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine State on September 09, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya ethnic minority people are entering from the Anjuman Para Boarder near Cox’s Bazar after a whole day wait in the no man’s land on November 02, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
A Rohingya ethnic minority is going to aid centre on a heavy rain with a new born baby on October 07, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya ethnic minority mother fleeing to a temporary makeshift camp, after crossing over Naf river from Myanmar into Bangladesh side of the border, near Cox's Bazar's Shah Porir Dip, September 09, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya refugees sail towards the bank of Naf River on a makeshift raft with their family members along with pregnant mother, children and elderly, after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at Sabrang in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on November 12, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar arrive by wooden boats under the cover of darkness on the beach of Shah Porir Dwip, near Cox’s Bazar, on October 03, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya ethnic minority people fleeing to a temporary makeshift camp, and trying to settle temporarily there, after crossing over from Myanmar into the Bangladesh side of the border, near Cox's Bazar's Palangkhali area, September 13, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya Muslim refugee elderly is taking shower at a temporary makeshift shelters after crossing over from Myanmar into the Bangladesh side of the border, near Cox's Bazar's Naikongchori area, September 11, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya Muslim people, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, waiting inside a giant tube in the rain at a makeshift after crossing over from Myanmar into the Bangladesh side of the border, near Cox's Bazar's Balukhali area, September 21, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
The bodies of Rohingya refugees are laid out after the boat in which they were attempting to flee Myanmar capsized about eight kilometers off Inani Beach, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on September 28, 2017. Around 100 people were on the boat before it capsized and only 17 survivors. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Shaheda, 40, a Rohingya ethnic minority woman who said her body was burnt when the Myanmar army set fire to her house, receives treatment at the Cox's Bazar District Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar, on September 22, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Azizul Haque 14 died by a land mine in the Myanmar boarder. He was coming to Bangladesh with his family. His relatives in Bangladesh taking him to the nearest mosque in Thangkhali area, September 14, 2017. © Salahaddin Ahmed
Rohingya Crisis: Through Despair there is Hope
During the last few decades, Myanmar has been forcing it’s Rohingya Muslim population into the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. In August 2017 an enormous humanitarian crisis erupted after Myanmar’s military carried out a violent purge, leading nearly 700,000 Rohingya – mostly women and children –, to flee to relative safety in Bangladesh. Ahmed stayed at the camps in Cox’s Bazar for months, extensively documenting the perilous journeys the refugees had to make. Some of those he met there had lost their identities and loved ones in Myanmar, and were now experience another humanitarian crisis – living in squalid conditions without access to basic medical care. This photographic project centres on the struggle for health and survival in the camps, especially among women, children and pregnant mothers. Ahmed believes the desperate plight of these people needs to be the focus of greater worldwide attention.
About the Photographer
Salahuddin Ahmed (b.1984) is a documentary photo activist from Bangladesh working as a photojournalist with UNB. To hone his skills he is also pursuing a course in Pathshala South Asian Media Institute. His work has been published in the New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Independent-UK and UNB. Exhibitions include 2015 Visa Pour L’Image, Ian Parry Scholarship Exhibition, Perpignan, France, and the 2015 Ian Parry Scholarship Exhibition, London, UK.