Rohingyas are an ethnic, linguistic and religious minority group in Myanmar,885that have been displaced into Bangladesh for decades.886 They are in general stateless, as they are denied citizenship in Myanmar.887 In Bangladesh, they are not granted refugee status888 but stay on temporary humanitarian grounds.889 Most arrived in 2017,890 following a violent campaign against the group by the Myanmar military.891 Yunus has pleaded that Bangladesh will continue to support Rohingyas seeking refuge in the country.892
Rohingyas continued to be displaced, inter alia in 2024 when many crossed the border into Bangladesh, fleeing the escalating conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.893 UNHCR estimates that more than 1 .1 million Rohingyas are hosted in camps in Cox’s Bazar894 in the southeast of Bangladesh.895 The 33 camps in the area shelter more than 1 million people that cannot move freely or work, and that depend on humanitarian aid.896 The camps suffer from overcrowding,897 poor sanitation898 and poor health conditions,899 and Rohingyas living there are dependent on humanitarian aid.900 In March 2025, UNICEF reported on the worst malnutrition rates among children in the camps since 2017.901
Armed Rohingya-led groups operating in the camps have subjected Rohingyas to lethal and sexual violence, torture, and abductions.902 The security environment inside the camps deteriorated in 2024,903 inter alia due to the escalating conflict in Myanmar, leading to ‘a rise in killings, abductions, extortion, recruitment and violence incidents’.904 According to Fortify Rights, militant groups operate in the camps with ‘near-total impunity’, which has created ‘a climate of fear for all camp residents’, in particular among Rohingya religious leaders, human rights defenders and other opposing the militant groups fearing for their lives as they ‘may be killed any moment’.905 Also the police battalions stationed in the camps have subjected Rohingyas to abuse,906 including arbitrary arrests, extortion, torture,907 and sexual violence against women and girls.908 In 2024, there were reports of Rohingya teenage boys and young men being forcibly recruited by armed gangs in the camps to fight in Myanmar909 for the Myanmar military.910 According to Doctors Without borders over 1 000 young men and boys had been forcibly recruited in the beginning of 2024.911
A local media source reported on a group of Rohingya men being arrested in Cox’s Bazar, after having worked informally for months. They were returned to the camp where they were registered.912
- 885
Uddin, N., Understanding ‘refugee resettlement’ from below: Decoding the Rohingya refugees’ lived experience in Bangladesh, World Development, 15 May 2024, url
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UNHCR, 2025-26 Joint Response Plan, Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, 13 April 2025, url, p. 14
- 887
MSF Australia, The Rohingya: The World's Largest Stateless Population, n.d., url
- 888
NRC, Rohingya in Bangladesh: Seven years, seven insights, 25 August 2024, url
- 889
UNHCR, 2025-26 Joint Response Plan, Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, 13 April 2025, url, p. 14
- 890
UNHCR, Bangladesh, n.d., url
- 891
MSF Australia, The Rohingya: The World's Largest Stateless Population, n.d., url; HRW, Myanmar: No Justice, No Freedom for Rohingya 5 Years On, 24 August 2022, url
- 892
Al Jazeera, Bangladesh’s Yunus promises support to Rohingya in first policy speech, 18 August 2024, url
- 893
Al Jazeera, More injured Rohingya arriving in Bangladesh as Myanmar war intensifies, 12 August 2024, url; AI, Myanmar/Bangladesh: Rohingya community facing gravest threats since 2017, 24 October 2024, url
- 894
UNHCR, Joint Government of Bangladesh - UNHCR Population Factsheet - Block Level as of March 2025, 22 April 2025, url
- 895
Britannica, Cox’s bazar, 11 June 2025, url
- 896
European Commission, Crisis in Cox’s Bazar: aid cuts push Rohingya to the brink, 28 May 2025, url
- 897
UNHCR, 2025-26 Joint Response Plan, Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, 13 April 2025, url, p. 48; International Crisis Group, Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh: Limiting the Damage of a Protracted Crisis, 4 October 2023, url; MSF, Bangladesh: "In the Rohingya refugee camps, life is hard, and hope is fading", 12 January 2024, url
- 898
NRC, Rohingya in Bangladesh: Seven years, seven insights, 25 August 2024, url; MSF, Bangladesh: "In the Rohingya refugee camps, life is hard, and hope is fading", 12 January 2024, url
- 899
NRC, Rohingya in Bangladesh: Seven years, seven insights, 25 August 2024, url
- 900
AFP, UN chief in Rohingya refugee camp solidarity visit, 14 March 2025, url; NRC, Rohingya in Bangladesh: Seven years, seven insights, 25 August 2024, url
- 901
UNICEF, 27 per cent surge in number of children admitted for severe acute malnutrition treatment in Rohingya refugee camps, 11 March 2025, url
- 902
HRW, Bangladesh: Spiralling Violence Against Rohingya Refugees, 13 July 2023, url; Win, K., Cox’s Bazaar: Insecurity, Criminality and Rohingya Women, South Asia @ LSE, 6 February 2023, url
- 903
UNHCR, 2025-26 Joint Response Plan, Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, 13 April 2025, url, p. 44; NRC, Rohingya in Bangladesh: Seven years, seven insights, 25 August 2024, url
- 904
UNHCR, 2025-26 Joint Response Plan, Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, 13 April 2025, url, p. 44
- 905
Fortify Rights, “I May Be Killed Any Moment’, March 2025, url, pp. 8, 10
- 906
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants Felipe Gonzále Morales, 23 May 2023, url, para. 102; Fortify Rights, Bangladesh: Ensure Accountability for Police Corruption, Torture of Rohingya Refugees, 10 August 2023, url
- 907
HRW, Bangladesh: Rampant Police Abuse of Rohingya Refugees, 17 January 2023, url; Fortify Rights, Bangladesh: Ensure Accountability for Police Corruption, Torture of Rohingya Refugees, 10 August 2023, url
- 908
HRW, Bangladesh Police Abuses Rampant in Rohingya Camps, 24 January 2024, url; DW, Rohingya in Bangladesh demand action against police abuse, 2 February 2024, url
- 909
Fortify Rights, Myanmar/Bangladesh: End Abduction, Forced Conscription of Rohingya Civilians, 26 July 2024, url; Diplomat (The), Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Pressured to Join Myanmar’s Civil War, 21 June 2024, url
- 910
Fortify Rights, Myanmar/Bangladesh: End Abduction, Forced Conscription of Rohingya Civilians, 26 July 2024, url
- 911
MSF, Echoes of violence in the Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar, 4 December 2024, url
- 912
Country Today (The), 8 Rohingyas detained in Bandarban, 22 May 2025, url