Rohingya

Let’s talk about the time the United Nations—guardian of international human rights, global peacekeeper, moral compass for the post-war world—shared biometric data of Rohingya refugees with the government they were fleeing from. Yes, you read that right. Without informed consent. The very people who fled genocidal violence in Myanmar, who put their trust in the UN for protection, were quietly catalogued and handed back—data-first—under the noble banner of “registration”. Cue the press statement: “Statement on refugee registration and data collection in Bangladesh.” It reads like a lesson in passive voice and bureaucratic shoulder-shrugging. There’s talk of “ensuring safeguards” and “technical protocols” and “cooperation with the host government”. What’s not mentioned: how collecting biometric data without proper, informed consent, then sharing it with the regime accused of ethnic cleansing, might be—how do we put this gently—a catastrophic breach of trust and human rights. ...