Anjana Sankar is an Indian journalist based in the UAE whose reporting focuses on global stories of conflict, migration, and disasters. Anjana holds an MA in Journalism and is currently a senior reporter at The National in Abu Dhabi. She has previously worked with Khaleej Times as the Abu Dhabi bureau chief and with Gulf News as a senior reporter. In the UAE, Anjana has reported widely on the labour rights of migrant workers, Indian affairs, expatriate welfare, education, and foreign affairs. Anjana’s international reporting reflects her passion to give voice to refugees and advocate for their rights. Her extensive reportage of the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2017, as well as her continued coverage of their ongoing plight in Myanmar and Bangladeshi camps has highlighted the gross human rights violations the ethnic Muslim minority continues to endure. Her stories and podcasts have tracked the perilous sea journeys many Rohingya refugees undertake across the Bay of Beng and the devastating impact of Cyclone Mocha on the Rohingya villages in Myanmar. Driven by a strong commitment to tell stories that highlight the human cost of conflicts, Anjana has reported from the frontlines of protracted conflicts in the Middle East. She has covered the often-forgotten civil war in North-East Syria immediately after the withdrawal of the US forces and the impact of the Turkish invasion on Kurdish towns. She is one of the few journalists who has reported from inside high-security Kurdish prisons on the inhumane conditions under which suspected ISIS prisoners are being held and the challenges the Kurdish forces face in guarding them. Anjana has also embedded with military forces in Yemen and covered the UAE’s then-significant deployment in the Saudi-led war, as well as the coalition forces’ counter-terrorism war against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). During the rare reporting trip to Aden and the previous AQAP strongholds, Anjana’s reports highlighted the brutal realities of the conflict including Yemen’s devastating hunger crisis. During her 15-plus year career, Anjana has also covered several other international stories such as the impact of the first peace deal between Israel and the UAE, the Syrian refugee influx into Germany during the initial years of the civil war, the 2018 floods in Kerala, India, and the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
