I Feel No Peace Rohingya Fleeing Over Seas and Rivers
Shortlisted for the 2024 Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing
Longlisted for the 2023 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing
Rohingya men, women and children have been fleeing their homes for forty years. The tipping point came in August 2017, when almost 700,000 were wrung from Myanmar in a single military operation. Today, very few members of this Muslim minority remain in the country. Instead, they live mostly in Bangladesh’s refugee camps; or precariously in Malaysia, India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
With the Rohingya almost entirely in exile, I Feel No Peace is the first book-length exploration of their lives abroad, drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and long-standing relationships within the diaspora. Kaamil Ahmed speaks to the families of snatched children, and people kidnapped to feed the human trafficking nourished by Rohingya suffering. Most disturbingly, he reveals the complicity of NGOs and the UN in the refugees’ plight.
But Ahmed also uncovers resilience and hope; stories of how a scattered community survives. The lives uncovered in I Feel No Peace are complex, heart-breaking and unforgettable.
‘Sheds light on issues that are mired in miscommunication and disinformation. We sincerely hope [I Feel No Peace] will be read widely and used to provide further nuance to the issues of migration, foreign relations, and international justice and human rights.’— Special Mention from the Bread & Roses Award Committee
‘This book paints a deep, complicated and appalling picture: of one million people who have fled danger but now face immense risks from those they thought would protect them. While documenting the harm done by the UN and the Bangladeshi state, Ahmed humanises those normally dehumanised—the refugees.’ — Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian
Shortlisted for the 2024 Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing
Longlisted for the 2023 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing
Rohingya men, women and children have been fleeing their homes for forty years. The tipping point came in August 2017, when almost 700,000 were wrung from Myanmar in a single military operation. Today, very few members of this Muslim minority remain in the country. Instead, they live mostly in Bangladesh’s refugee camps; or precariously in Malaysia, India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
With the Rohingya almost entirely in exile, I Feel No Peace is the first book-length exploration of their lives abroad, drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and long-standing relationships within the diaspora. Kaamil Ahmed speaks to the families of snatched children, and people kidnapped to feed the human trafficking nourished by Rohingya suffering. Most disturbingly, he reveals the complicity of NGOs and the UN in the refugees’ plight.
But Ahmed also uncovers resilience and hope; stories of how a scattered community survives. The lives uncovered in I Feel No Peace are complex, heart-breaking and unforgettable.
‘Sheds light on issues that are mired in miscommunication and disinformation. We sincerely hope [I Feel No Peace] will be read widely and used to provide further nuance to the issues of migration, foreign relations, and international justice and human rights.’— Special Mention from the Bread & Roses Award Committee
‘This book paints a deep, complicated and appalling picture: of one million people who have fled danger but now face immense risks from those they thought would protect them. While documenting the harm done by the UN and the Bangladeshi state, Ahmed humanises those normally dehumanised—the refugees.’ — Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian
Shortlisted for the 2024 Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing
Longlisted for the 2023 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing
Rohingya men, women and children have been fleeing their homes for forty years. The tipping point came in August 2017, when almost 700,000 were wrung from Myanmar in a single military operation. Today, very few members of this Muslim minority remain in the country. Instead, they live mostly in Bangladesh’s refugee camps; or precariously in Malaysia, India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
With the Rohingya almost entirely in exile, I Feel No Peace is the first book-length exploration of their lives abroad, drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and long-standing relationships within the diaspora. Kaamil Ahmed speaks to the families of snatched children, and people kidnapped to feed the human trafficking nourished by Rohingya suffering. Most disturbingly, he reveals the complicity of NGOs and the UN in the refugees’ plight.
But Ahmed also uncovers resilience and hope; stories of how a scattered community survives. The lives uncovered in I Feel No Peace are complex, heart-breaking and unforgettable.
‘Sheds light on issues that are mired in miscommunication and disinformation. We sincerely hope [I Feel No Peace] will be read widely and used to provide further nuance to the issues of migration, foreign relations, and international justice and human rights.’— Special Mention from the Bread & Roses Award Committee
‘This book paints a deep, complicated and appalling picture: of one million people who have fled danger but now face immense risks from those they thought would protect them. While documenting the harm done by the UN and the Bangladeshi state, Ahmed humanises those normally dehumanised—the refugees.’ — Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian