Sirazul: a permanent home and new adventures
From a young child determined to get an education, to a 'future PM' and a campaigner for stateless people
Sirazul was born in a refugee camp in Bangladesh after his Rohingya family had to flee Burma. He didn’t leave the camp until he was seven years old.
When Sirazul was seven, he came with his family to live in Bradford through a UN resettlement programme. He’s now an active member of the Rohingya community there and is studying law. Sirazul plays cricket and football, is co-directing a play and enjoys eating out with friends.
Sirazul campaigns for the rights of stateless people – people who do not have a recognised nationality and therefore struggle to see their human rights respected. There are approximately 12 million stateless people in the world.
“You could see a lot of people inhaling and exhaling. You could see relief on their faces.”
EXTRACTS OF SIRAZUL'S CONVERSATION WITH HASSAN
Hassan: How would friends describe you?
Sirazul: Outspoken and loud *laughs*. When we were doing the leaving awards for sixth form, I got future prime minister!
Hassan: You must have a lot of energy to do that! Those are really good attitudes, if you’re outspoken and loud you have a career in politics!
What’s the weirdest thing about the UK?
Sirazul: It might not just be the UK, it might be Europe or the West: toilets on buses!” *laughs*
We always shared toilets with like 50 other people in the camp. We were coming to Bradford from Manchester on a coach and I needed the bathroom. My brother was like, ‘there’s a bathroom on here’. I was like: ‘On a coach?! A moving coach?!’ And then I saw it and it was a sit down one and I was like, what do I do?!
Hassan: In terms of your life before you came to the UK, what’s the strongest memory you have?
Sirazul: I was about 5 or 6 and I was quite keen on going to learning centres: you get free biscuits! We had exams, and I knew I passed these exams. When you pass, you get biscuits and then you get new books and then you get moved up a class. But when results came out, I never got moved up, neither did I get books, and I was like, I passed! They said if you have a problem, take it up with someone higher.
And that someone higher – his office was very far from my house and school. I was 5 years old so I went to my mum and she was gardening and I said, I’m gonna complain. She must’ve thought I was joking – she was like go – you go, do what you want!
So I walked all the way to the entrance of the camp and went into the office of this person who was the highest person for education in the camp and I was like, this is what happened, I need my books, and I brought him back to the school and made them present me with the books!
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SIRAZUL'S STORY IN HIS OWN WORDS
In the camp I saw a lot of fights, a lot of violence... it was normalised. I hadn’t realised how wrong it was until I was like 15. Not being able to have a bath or shower in private... not being able to go to school and live like a 5-year-old student…
You’re not allowed to leave the camp. Most people would have never travelled in a car, let alone a bus, or even a plane.
Once you come here, you know the promise of a better life.
The people who have been in that refugee camp for 19, 20 years, imagine how they felt as soon as they landed. For me it felt free. As soon as you landed you felt like you could breathe.
Everything was so quiet and calm and soothing. The air probably, because it was cleaner, it just felt different and that was the best thing. You could see a lot of people inhaling and exhaling. You could see relief on their faces. And that was the same for me. Even as a 7-year-old.
The feeling of freedom just ran through everyone.
I remember we had t-shirts, shorts... I think it was dark at 4 o’clock and we were like, what is going on, why is it so cold?! *laughs*
I was fascinated by the streetlamps on the motorway. There’s so many of them and it’s so bright. In the camp there’s no light at all – once it gets dark, it’s pitch black. But it was cold and wet and people were like, what are we doing here, why is this country like this?!
When we got to sixth form and we did sociology, we were talking about identity and my teacher would say, what do you identify as? I just thought to myself, I am a Burmese Rohingya who has been kicked out of their own homeland because they don’t recognise us. I was born in a Bangladeshi refugee camp where I have no access to any of my rights or identity. I would never be classed as a Bangladeshi. And I’m here in Britain in the UK without citizenship… what am I?
To be considered stateless – the simplest way to put it, is breathing and living but not being alive. You’re not accepted by anyone. The first decade of my life I was treated as a subhuman because I never had anything to call home.
When I got my citizenship, I thought it would all change. [But] even though Brits come from all shapes and sizes and forms and colours, I don’t feel like people look at me and think I’m British. I feel like my British citizenship could be taken at any given moment, there’s no security to it. So that’s where the identity crisis stems from.
Ooof, right now, it’s very busy! I’m a law student, I’m in my third year. I got good grades – just need a job!
I also work part time, I’m a waiter. We got this incredible restaurant where my older brother worked, so they’re like family friends.
I’m the youth director of the British Rohingya community in Bradford. We preserve the culture and tradition of the Rohingyas but also advocate for the rights of the Rohingyas around the world.
Bradford has the largest Rohingya community in Europe – we have about 350 or 360 people who have directly come from the refugee camps through the UN Settlement program
What I love the most is how quickly and easy it was for me to assimilate into the UK. Bradford is the most diverse city in the UK. In my secondary school there were 93 languages spoken. It was very, very easy to know that there are other people who went through the same experiences as you. Bradford has been really good to us…
These photos were taken by Amir Mahdavi and Honour Burges in London.
The quotes are from Sirazul's conversation with Hassan Akkad.
Sirazul is involved with the European Network on Statelessness, which is committed to ending statelessness and helping people without a nationality access their rights.