Misinformation about Rohingya refugees often starts in Myanmar and Bangladesh, then spreads across borders and shapes public opinion throughout South Asia. Images and videos from refugee camps in Bangladesh are reused in anti-immigrant narratives against the Rohingya, stateless Muslim refugees who have been forced to flee Myanmar due to an ongoing genocide and oppression against them.
Rohingya Protesters pushing for change in Myanmar at the G20 in Brisbane, Australia. Image via Flickr by Andrew Mercer. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Originally published at Global Voices in December 2025.
The migration journey of Bangladeshi workers is increasingly mediated through informal networks that expose prospective migrants to misinformation, deception, and exploitation.
Despite rising reliance on online recruitment and remittance systems, little is known about how misleading information propagates across the migration lifecycle.
Building on recent evidence of digital recruitment scams and pervasive “free-visa” schemes, this study investigates how misinformation is produced and circulated, which actors exploit digital and interpersonal channels, and which digital-literacy deficits most strongly mediate harm.
Importantly, findings will inform policy and practice: strengthening digital literacy curricula, verification mechanisms, and harmonising regulatory oversight across recruitment pipelines can mitigate the harms documented.
Finally, the research calls for rigorous evaluations of digital-literacy interventions and cross-sector collaborations to foster safer migration pathways.
Digital recruitment scams: A nightmare for thousands of Bangladeshi migrants
Migrants’ digital vulnerability—the inability to authenticate online information and verify recruitment legitimacy—now sits at the heart of Bangladesh’s migration crisis
In recent years, the migration dreams of thousands of Bangladeshi workers have turned into digital nightmares. Social platforms that promise safer pathways to overseas employment have instead become primary vectors for recruitment scams, sophisticated fraud, online exploitation, and digital deception.
Digital Battlefield of Statelessness: Disinformation, Hate Speech, and the ‘Victim-to-Threat’ Narrative on Rohingya in South and Southeast Asia
This study explores the digital battlefield where the Rohingya crisis continues to be reframed by disinformation, state-sponsored propaganda, online hate campaigns, and politically driven narratives. While the visible consequences—forced displacement, statelessness, and violence in refugee camps—have drawn significant international attention, the covert spread of anti-immigrant narratives and disinformation against the Rohingya community has remained insufficiently examined.
From viral social media content to misleading headlines in mainstream media, Rohingya identity has been repeatedly weaponised to fuel public fear and reframe humanitarian crises as national security threats. Anti-immigrant narratives and disinformation now demonstrate how the “victim-to-threat” framing of the Rohingya crisis functions not only as a discursive shift but also as a threat multiplier within the security landscape of South and Southeast Asia.
In countries such as Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, these narratives have not only shaped local attitudes but also fostered regional distrust and diplomatic friction. For instance, false stories about criminal activity and militant affiliations have circulated widely on TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp, portraying the Rohingya as a threat. Similarly, unverified claims linking Pakistan’s intelligence agency to armed Rohingya groups in Bangladesh have spread broadly, heightening suspicions between neighbouring states. These cases highlight how disinformation transcends borders, exploits geopolitical divisions, and turns stateless people into targets of manufactured hostility.
Identify how these narratives are shaped and amplified by local political agendas, militarised state media, and digital platforms.
Expose structural gaps in regional digital rights frameworks that often overlook the digital vulnerability of stateless communities.
Drawing on insights from academia, digital rights journalists, fact-checkers, and regional stakeholders, this study will analyse recurring disinformation patterns—depicting the Rohingya as terrorists, criminals, demographic threats, or burdens on host societies. It will further illustrate how disinformation flows influence policy decisions, humanitarian violations, and regional discourse.
This research contributes to digital migration studies by showing how the “victim-to-threat” narrative functions as a threat multiplier in the security nexus of South and Southeast Asia. It also challenges dominant digital rights frameworks in refugee crisis discourse and advocates for a collaborative response that amplifies the voices of stateless and displaced communities online.
Root Cause Analysis of Digital Vulnerability of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers
In recent years, Bangladeshi aspirant migrant workers and immigration seekers have become primary targets of sophisticated online fraud, recruitment scams, and financial deception. These threats — delivered via social media groups, messaging apps, fake mobile apps, online betting traps, and fraudulent payment flows — have reached deep into villages and vulnerable communities.
Map how digital deception reaches aspirant workers at the village level.
Analyse classical cases showing recurring scam modalities using migration networks.
Co-design a practical, low-literacy curriculum and delivery model for digital & financial literacy suited to grassroots contexts.
Outcomes
This study identifies the common digital recruitment scams and fraud techniques that are targeting Bangladeshi aspirants. Which institutional factors drive digital vulnerability? How do aspirant migrant workers’ digital behaviours and financial practices interact with scam vectors?
This initiative will move beyond symptom-spotting to identify root causes and produce practical solutions — an evidence-based curriculum and pilot that can be taken up by BMET, CSOs, and community trainers.
Keywords
Migration Risk, Digital Vulnerability, Digital Literacy, Recruitment Network, Cross-border Syndicates, Digital Scams
Supporters at the India vs Bangladesh CWC15 quarter final at the MCG, Australia. Image via Flickr by Tourism Victoria. CC BY 2.0.
The 2026 T20 Cricket World Cup, the biennial event organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), is meant to celebrate cricket’s global reach; it has instead exposed the fault lines where sport, security, and statecraft collide with unwanted consequences.
Bangladesh has refused to participate in matches scheduled on Indian soil due to security concerns and political tensions. However, the unfolding cricket crisis represents far more than a diplomatic standoff or a security dispute.
When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) instructed the Kolkata Knight Riders to release the Bangladeshi pacer from their IPL 2026 squad due to security concerns, they inadvertently created a logical conundrum that Bangladeshi officials quickly seized upon.
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Originally published at Global Voices on January 19, 2026.
How Online Misinformation Pushed Cricket Diplomacy to the Brink
International cricket has weathered many storms throughout its history, navigating political tensions, security threats, and diplomatic standoffs. However, the unfolding crisis surrounding Bangladesh’s participation in the 2026 T20 World Cup represents something unprecedented: a situation where the International Cricket Council (ICC) appears to be asking a nation to send its cricketers, officials, journalists, and supporters into an environment that carries substantial risks.
So far, the concerns centre on Kolkata, where Bangladesh is scheduled to play three of their group matches. Yet this is not merely about cricket venues or match logistics. Instead, the question has become a crucible where multiple combustible elements converge: A diplomatic freeze between two neighbouring nations, systematic visa restrictions, and the presence of exiled Awami League leaders and activists in Kolkata who harbour openly stated ambitions to destabilise Bangladesh’s current government.
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Originally published at Dhaka Tribune on January 9, 2026.
The release of Mustafizur Rahman from Kolkata Knight Riders created what Bangladeshi officials aptly described as a logical paradox. Consequently, this single decision by an Indian Premier League franchise unravelled into something far more dangerous than a mere contractual dispute.
Politicians on both sides of the border were framing the episode in stark, uncompromising terms, which left little room for diplomatic resolution.
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“Bangladeshi Passport” by Moin Uddin is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Visit the link to view a copy of this license.
The green Bangladeshi passport, once a symbol of hope and opportunity for millions seeking better lives abroad, has become a liability at immigration counters worldwide. What unfolds daily at airports across Southeast Asia, Western Asia, and beyond is not merely a migration crisis but a systematic breakdown of trust, governance, and human dignity. Thousands of Bangladeshi citizens stand at immigration desks with valid visas in hand, only to be turned away, detained, and deported without clear explanations.
“Bangladeshi Passport” by Moin Uddin is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Visit the link to view a copy of this license.
On August 13, 2025, Malaysian immigration authorities denied entry to 204 Bangladeshi nationals at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The passengers were sent back to Bangladesh, their dreams of overseas work shattered before they could even exit the airport. This incident came after earlier mass deportations of 96 on July 11, 123 on July 24, and 80 on July 25. These travellers had valid visas, proper documentation, and airline tickets. Yet they never made it past immigration.
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Originally published at GlobalVoices on January 9, 2026.
Beyond the boundary: Why Bangladesh says it can’t play cricket in India
Cricket in South Asia has always been more than just a sport. It carries the weight of national pride, historical grievances, and political calculations that can turn a tournament into a diplomatic flashpoint. But what happens when the field itself becomes contested territory—when players cannot cross the boundary line because the boundary has become a border they dare not cross?
The electronic version of the article, retrieved from the website
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Originally published at Dhaka Tribune on January 9, 2026.
He completed a Bachelor’s in Media Studies & Journalism and a Master’s in Communication at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). Later, he expanded his theoretical grounding with a Master’s in Development Studies from the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), a combination that underpins his work bridging scholarly inquiry and field-facing practice.
Bridging Research & Practice in Disinformation Studies and Digital Citizenry
This layered disciplinary foundation enables him to deploy communication theory, journalistic method and development frameworks in the analysis and design of interventions that address information disorder, civic literacy and grassroots problems.
His classroom practice is informed by hands-on verification work and project leadership carried out through Fact-Watch and regional collaborations. He helps translate empirical research into teachable modules and active learning exercises.
Zulker’s research focus is organised around Digital Media and Information Studies, Synthetic Media Studies, Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenry, and their intersections with gender, democracy and civic participation.
He studies how narratives move across platforms and borders, how synthetic media technologies alter evidentiary practices, and how gendered power relations shape both the production and effects of false information; his writings and policy commentaries articulate the theoretical stakes while proposing concrete institutional and pedagogical responses.
In published essays, he has traced the transnational dynamics of disinformation in South Asia, argued for whole-of-society approaches to fact-checking, and documented how misinformation is weaponised against women—each piece grounded in empirical observation and oriented toward practice.
Practically, his work blends qualitative field research with open-source digital forensics and OSINT techniques. He leverages mixed methods—ethnographic interviews, content and discourse analysis, geolocation and metadata verification—to reconstruct information supply chains and attribute patterns of coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
Throughout his career, he has actively translated research into curriculum and capacity building. He has designed specialised training modules and short courses on basic fact-checking and verification toolkits for grassroots practitioners. These pedagogical products are tailored to the needs of journalists in Bangladesh and the broader South Asia region, and are deployed in workshops, fact-checking schools and university classrooms.
His curriculum development emphasises locally-situated problem sets, hands-on verification labs, and gender-sensitive safeguards, ensuring that training is both technically rigorous and ethically attentive.
At the same time, his leadership in regionally focused projects—such as contributing to a draft strategy for South Asian collaboration on transnational misinformation—illustrates how his scholarship moves beyond description to institutional design and policy engagement.
That pathway equips him with a rare combination of strategic communications skills, investigative craft, and curriculum design expertise, enabling him to operate as an interdisciplinary researcher-development practitioner who can convene scholars, train journalists, advise policymakers and support grassroots actors.
In public fora and peer networks, he positions Disinformation Studies as an applied, action-oriented discipline—one that requires methodological pluralism, ethical reflexivity and sustained investment in digital literacy and civic capacity.
His work therefore insists that solutions to information disorder must integrate pedagogical interventions, verification infrastructures, cross-border cooperation and gender-aware policies, and his published commentaries and project briefs offer concrete recommendations for each of these domains.
South Asia faces an urgent crisis of weaponised misinformation targeting refugees and migrants. This regional study examines systematic patterns of anti-immigrant narratives across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Maldives. Our research team, comprising scholars from the discipline of misinformation studies, analyses how digital platforms transform humanitarian crises into political ammunition.
This study pursues three interconnected objectives. First, we document systematic patterns in how anti-immigrant narratives are constructed, disseminated, and weaponised across South Asian digital spaces. Second, we analyse the transnational dimensions of misinformation flows, examining how narratives migrate across borders through shared language networks and diaspora media channels. Third, we investigate how political actors exploit refugee crises for electoral advantage.
Most importantly, this study demonstrates that combating anti-immigrant misinformation requires coordinated regional responses, not isolated national efforts.
In recent years, Bangladeshi citizens across all categories, including students, businessmen, and travellers, have experienced unprecedented difficulty in obtaining visas for short-term business and travel purposes. This transformation from relatively accessible visa regimes to highly restrictive processes arises from multiple interconnected factors.
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus recently stated that Bangladesh has become quite famous globally for the submission of fake documents, noting that the country continues to face the same complaints from receiving nations regardless of the destination. This reputation for fraudulent documentation has created a systemic credibility crisis that affects all Bangladeshi applicants, including those with entirely legitimate purposes.
The electronic version of the article, retrieved from the website
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The dream of working abroad has become a nightmare for thousands of Bangladeshi migrants. They arrive at foreign airports with valid visas, only to be interrogated, detained, and sent back home on the next available flight. This growing crisis of airport turnbacks and exploitation under tourist visas is not just damaging individual lives but also destroying Bangladesh’s global reputation. The problem has spread across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and beyond, with immigration authorities becoming increasingly suspicious of Bangladeshi travellers.
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Training of 200 Journalists to Counter Disinformation Ahead of 13th Parliamentary Election
The Election Training Institute (ETI) of the Bangladesh Election Commission hosted a series of briefings for journalists from December 3 to December 7, 2025, aimed at strengthening credible election coverage and improving crisis communication during the 13th National Parliament Election.
The sessions, held in the conference room of ETI Bhaban, Agargaon, Dhaka, were delivered in four separate batches and attended by 200 reporters and editors from leading national dailies and television channels.
It was an invitation to contribute to the programme and led sessions focused on several practical and urgent aspects of election reporting, including:
Understanding election conflicts and sources of polarisation;
Responding quickly and responsibly during crises;
The media’s role in ensuring credible, impartial election coverage, and
Participants received targeted guidance on identifying and managing disinformation campaigns, propaganda, and hate speech—issues that can inflame tensions and undermine public trust during electoral periods.
Journalists who completed the briefing left with resource materials, contact points for rapid verification support, and recommended newsroom checklists to use throughout the campaigning and voting period.
