I Feel No Peace: The Story of the Rohingya w/ Kaamil Ahmed

What does it mean for an entire people to be living in exile? Journalist Kaamil Ahmed has spent years trying to answer that question and has conducted hundreds of hours of interviews in order to understand Rohingya suffering and what he argues is the complicity of NGOs and the UN. On February 28 he comes to Intelligence Squared to discuss the themes of his new book I Feel No Peace: Rohingya Fleeing Over Seas and Rivers and to reveal the extraordinary resilience that has helped these scattered communities survive.

About the book

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.

About the author

Kaamil Ahmed is a journalist at The Guardian, covering international development, who previously lived in and reported from Jerusalem, Bangladesh and Turkey. Kaamil was born in East London and studied at Queen Mary University of London. This is his first book.