Rejimon Kuttappan

Rejimon Kuttappan is an independent journalist and a migrant rights defender. He was Chief Reporter for the Times of Oman until he was deported back to India in 2017, for exposing human trafficking and modern slavery in the Arab Gulf through a front-page news story.

Rejimon now writes for the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), Equal Times, Migrant Rights, Middle East Eye, The Hindu, Times of India, The Caravan, Wire, The Leaflet, and various other Indian news portals.

He has done two media fellowships with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on labour migration and human trafficking, and one each with TRF and National Foundation of India (NFI) on forced labour and Gulf migration, respectively.

Rejimon is also a researcher for the Migrant Forum in Asia and has worked as a consultant for the ILO and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

In 2019, he authored an anthology, Rowing Between Rooftops: The Heroic Fishermen of Kerala Floods, telling the stories of heroic fishermen who rescued thousands from the 2018 Kerala floods.

Rejimon belongs to the Panan Dalit community of Kerala. Historically, Panans were ballad singers who narrated the acts of the then great warriors and kings. He wishes to continue this storytelling legacy through his books and writing.

Rejimon lives in Kerala and can be followed on @rejitweets. He can be contacted at reji.news@gmail.com