Myanmar's military conducted violent operations against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State, intensifying dramatically in 2017. Villages were burned and hundreds of thousands fled across the border into Bangladesh. Kutupalong near Cox's Bazar became one of the world's largest refugee settlements.

Rohingya poets including Mayyu Ali have used English and Rohingya language writing to assert an identity long denied by the Myanmar state. Poems composed in camps preserve village memories, persecution and the uncertainty of life without recognised citizenship.