BBC travel presenter Simon Reeve has revealed he helped a Rohingya refugee who was beaten by Burma’s military while filming his new series.
The adventurer was visiting a camp of displaced Rohingya on the Burma-Bangladesh border when the encounter took place.
His new BBC Two series uncovers what life is like in Burma after a military operation drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from their homes last summer.
Heading out on combat patrol for the #Burma series. Which starts next weekend – 13th I think(!). @bbctwo #myanmar #shan #shanstatearmysouth pic.twitter.com/ZZuKChPNLG
— Simon Reeve (@simon_reeve) May 4, 2018
Reeve told the Press Association how treating the injured man affected him.
He said: “We came across this young guy, a Rohingya man who had gone back across the border to try and check on his farm inside Burma.
“He had been caught by the Burmese military, very badly beaten up and threatened with his life.
“He had his skull fractured by them and he crawled back across the border. I had to treat him and bandage up his head which was bleeding heavily and then take him to a field hospital.
“It was completely surreal. Totally surreal and very upsetting. But I think anger as well was an emotion I felt a lot.
“It’s the 21st century, for goodness sake, and still terrible things are happening. We don’t seem capable of stopping them or resolving them, even.”
The two-part BBC Two series, Burma With Simon Reeve, begins on Sunday May 13 at 9pm.
