The Independent, BD: With a small generator, basic soldering equipment, small pliers, and a toothbrush, Anowar takes apart cell phones on a dusty desk in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.
A group of 20 refugees wait patiently to see him. They’re among the almost one million Rohingya who live in this sprawling makeshift city that last year rapidly became the world’s largest refugee camp.
“I don’t have a fixed income,” the self-taught repairman and Rohingya refugee says while fixing an old Nokia handset.
Many of the phones he repairs were brought into Bangladesh from Anowar’s native Rakhine state in Myanmar, where more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya — including Anowar — have fled violence since August 2017.The cell phones are a precious lifeline that allow Rohingya to keep in touch with friends and family scattered across the camps. In many cases, all that remains from their lives in Myanmar is footage of their homes and villages stored on phones.