Around another 30% of these jobs are split between a number of marginalized groups and ethnic minorities, but the students are not protesting these. This leaves only about a third of the country’s most prestigious jobs—those most likely to provide the opportunity for upwards social mobility—for the thousands of Bangladeshi students who graduate every year. This, teamed with the country’s economic instability and youth unemployment problem, adds up to an unpredictable future for students.
Jennifer, whose parents moved to the UK from Bangladesh before she was born, still has family there, and as the violence has escalated she has become more concerned for them. “My cousin’s friend was shot and killed by counter-protesters, and many of his other friends were in constant danger because the government had declared a shoot-on-sight policy across the country,” she explains. “As soon as the internet went out, we feared for the worst. This tactic has been used by the government before, and it’s only when it comes back up [that] you see the scale of the violence. We’re still unable to get through to family there, to my auntie. We feel helpless, and so I wanted to show my solidarity.”
Last week, Jennifer, 27, and fellow members of Nijjor Manush, a Bangladeshi community group, organized a rally and teach-in at an east London park. It was attended by over 200 people, many of whom were students. “As a group, and as individuals, we were getting messages from the diaspora in the UK asking us if we can do something. People wanted to rally, to protest, because everyone was just so shocked at the images, it was like a call from the community,” she says. “And because unlike some of the other UK protests, we’re not aligned to any of the political parties in Bangladesh—who are currently blaming each other for what’s happening—we were a safe space to make a stand in support of the student movement, and also teach people the history of British involvement in the training of the Rapid Action Battalion, the very forces attacking students, which many people don’t know about.”
In addition to the rally, Nijjor Manush has co-ordinated a statement with 200 British university academics, workers, and student groups calling for an end to the Bangladeshi government’s repression of students, and the British government’s training of Bangladeshi police forces such as the Rapid Action Battalion.