These photos were taken during a seven-month residency in 2010, as a volunteer teacher in a Rohingya organization working to assist new arrivals fleeing from the brutality in their homeland, to the border city of Mae Sot in neighboring Thailand.
Described by the United Nations in 2013 as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. According to Human Rights the Rohingya are denied the possibility of acquiring a nationality. Although Rohingya history in the region can be traced back to the 8th century, Burma law does not recognize the ethnic minority as one of the eight national indigenous races. They are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs. The legal conditions faced by the Rohingya in Burma have been widely compared to apartheid by many international academics. UN officials and HRW have described Burma's persecution of the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing. The UN human rights envoy to Burma reported "the long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community could amount to crimes against humanity", and there have been warnings of an unfolding genocide. Yanghee Lee, the UN special investigator on Burma, believes the country wants to expel its entire Rohingya population.
© Daniel Botelho
