In August I traveled to Bangladesh for the first time for Al Jazeera America. The story was a fascinating one. As someone who loves history and the effects of it on the present this story had captured me for years since I first read about it.
On July 31st 2015 the enclaves that formed one of the world’s most complicated borders were officially absorbed in to the countries that surrounded them in a land-mark land swap between India and Bangladesh. The people that lived in them will finally receive citizenship. Enclaves are small pockets of sovereign land completely surrounded by another sovereign nation.
Approximately 160 enclaves, known as chitmahals, exist on either side of the India-Bangladesh border. For 68 years the 50,000 plus inhabitants of these enclaves have lived a difficult existence, stranded from their home nation and ignored by the country that surrounds them.
In theory even leaving their enclaves is illegally crossing an international border and for decades it has been very difficult for them to receive even the most basic of rights whether education or health. Even the police have no jurisdiction in the enclaves leaving them essentially lawless.
So for over a week I ventured in and out of India, hundreds of times, as I visited the Indian enclaves that surrounded the town of Debiganj in Panchargah district. And the whole time with the brilliant Riton Quiah who as my fixer for the story (if you need a fixer in Bangladesh I couldn’t recommend him more and feel free to contact me for his details).
The story had challenges. It was the end of the rainy season and as none of the chitmahals have paved roads we used a motorbike to drive around the countryside often getting very wet in the process. Often the villages had never seen a westerner before so hanging around for just a few moments would produce a crown of over fifty people all interested to hear why we were there. This made photographing individuals in their daily routine rather tricky. And furthermore the enclaves look exactly like the rest of the surrounding Bangladesh countryside except for a lack of electricity, running water and paved roads.
It was one of the most enjoyable trips I have had in recent years and to read the text I wrote for the story you can click here.