Photojournalism nominee

Montas and Rasia Begum

Montas Begum with her daughter Rasia, one year after they fled the village of Tulatoli in Myanmar. Now they are living in a shed in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh. Montas still has nightmares. She sees how people standing in line are slaughtered with machetes. But Montas is in a better condition than her daughter Rasia. The eight year old daughter witnessed her father being killed. She doesn’t eat enough. She suffers from fevers and infections. And she has a constant headache. Rasia is in need of emergency psychological help. Balukhali, Bangladesh. August, 9, 2018.

Montas and Rasia are not officially refugees. Bangladesh has chosen not to recognize the Rohingya as refugees. Instead they call the camps where they are staying Rohingya camps and the refugees are labeled FDMN, ”Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals”.
Without refugee status they are not entitled to the same help as a refugee otherwise would receive. According to Doctors without borders, the Myanmar Army, August 25, 2017, launched renewed ”clearance operations” ostensibly aimed at Rohingya militants but targeting all members of the community, including women and children. Widespread attacks against the Muslim minority group forced more than 706,000 people to

Lotta Härdelin (b. 1972) has worked as a photojournalist since the age of 17, when she started her career as a photographer on a local newspaper, ”Nerikes Allehanda” in Örebro, Sweden.

She became a staff photographer at Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest morning paper, in 1993. For the last 20 years she has worked in many different positions at Bonnier Mediahouse: Picture Editor, Head of Graphics Department, Chief Photo Editor, News Editor, and Head of the Visual Department and a member of the Editorial leadership.

From 2013 she has been part of Dagens Nyheters visual department and mainly works as a visual story teller in both still pictures and video. Her focus on climate change, freedom of speech, non-discrimination and human rights has taken her on assignments to all parts of the World.