The Rohingya in Bangladesh: growing tensions

Hamid has a reading lamp on his desk. It is connected to a car battery so that he can continue reading in the evening when it gets pitch dark in the camp. "I would like to study in another country," says Hamid during a visit in November 2022. He has learned a little English. Hamid is 15 years old; his desk is in a hut in the world’s biggest refugee camp. He is one of over a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Like Hamid, the majority of them live near the town of Cox's Bazar.

The Rohingya are originally from neighbouring Myanmar, but Myanmar stripped them of their citizenship in the 1980s. As a Muslim minority, they were persecuted by the military which drove them out from their lands. Time and again, the Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh which is also a Muslim state. In 2017, the army in Myanmar cracked down on the Rohingya with unprecedented brutality. Soldiers massacred entire villages in Rakhine state close to the Bangladeshi border. Myanmar has been accused of genocide, and the case is currently before the International Court of Justice.

In 2017, about 750,000 refugees fled across the border to Bangladesh which made the number of Rohingya in the country shoot up exponentially. Many settled in the hills and jungles close to Cox's Bazar. A refugee camp was established where there were once trees. International aid organisations delivered tarpaulins. NGOs built brick roads to deliver relief supplies. The trees did not grow back, and the land is slushy in the rainy season. Even today, almost everything in the camp is made of bamboo, including Hamid’s hut. He lives with his mother. His father was murdered in the 2017 massacres. Even Hamid's football is made of bamboo. Everything here is meant to be temporary and easy to dismantle. But even after six years, it's not clear what the future holds for the Rohingya who live in the camp. "We want to go back to our country," says Hamid.

Bangladesh is a developing country itself. It is one of the most densely populated nations in the world, and rising sea levels erode more of its coastline every year. When the Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh in 2017, there was much solidarity. Bangladesh kept its borders open and welcomed them with open arms. The pictures were seen around the world and money poured in from the international community.

Today, solidarity has given way to fatigue. One of the camp leaders in Cox's Bazar said: "We give the Rohingya everything they need for survival. But we will not permit them to settle here, we will not allow them to consider themselves Bengalis."

Before the Rohingya arrived, Bangladesh was considered a role model for international development policy. The country gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, and in the 2000s it overtook its big neighbour India on key indicators such as education and child mortality. Poverty in the country declined from 58.8% in 1991 to 24.3% by 2016. Bangladesh’s per capita income of USD 2,500 is now higher than that of Pakistan or India.

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s rule has been increasingly authoritarian. Journalists are persecuted, and death squads within the security forces eliminate political opponents. Prime Minister Hasina once referred to the Rohingya as a "burden" and pursues a policy of isolating rather than integrating the Rohingya, which many in Bangladesh support.

Rohingya children are not permitted to attend schools outside the camp. This means that they have no access to higher education. Rohingya are not allowed to work outside the camps because the risk of conflict is too high. There have been recurring confrontations with locals in the past because Rohingya daily wagers demand less money for the same job than local workers. A fence has now been erected around the entire camp. Humanitarian aid organisations try to strike a difficult balance by supporting both the Rohingya as well as local residents near the camps. They provide assistance to schools and environmental projects so that local communities do not feel at a disadvantage compared with the Rohingya.

"Community relations have improved in the meantime", says Kamlesh Vyas, who works for the Swiss humanitarian organisation Helvetas. However, he notes that there is prejudice and hostility, especially among young Bangladeshis who themselves suffer deprivation. "They fear that the Rohingya will take away their jobs. That is why we provide them with assistance through job opportunities."

Solidarity with the Rohingya hasn't just declined in Bangladesh. There appears to be fatigue about the refugee crisis even in the international community. The Rohingya story has practically vanished from media coverage. There are new crises such as in Ukraine and Afghanistan that affect Europe more directly. Last year, the UN needed USD 881 million for Rohingya support programmes but received only USD 556 million. In the camps, this translates into a smaller budget for food rations. The World Food Programme’s food budget per person recently dropped from USD 12 to USD 10 a month. Effectively this means that people in the camps are going hungry.

"Fires break out regularly," says Vyas. No one knows who is responsible for setting them. Sometimes, the desperate situation in the camps leads to armed clashes between Rohingya groups. The people are hungry, under-employed, poorly educated, living in overcrowded conditions and have hardly any future prospects. The camps are becoming more crowded because the Rohingya have a high birth rate.

Bangladesh is now attempting to repatriate the Rohingya to Myanmar. It launched a pilot project in 2023 with Myanmar’s junta. Both countries have negotiated the return of about 1,000 Rohingya. At the beginning of the year, a delegation partly consisting of Rohingya who wished to return visited a reception camp in Myanmar. One of the members later told Reuters that he wanted to live freely in Myanmar, not return to a camp.

Human rights organisations are critical of these repatriation efforts. UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, has stated that conditions in the state are "not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees".

At the same time, Bangladesh is moving Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, an island located several hours away from the mainland. The government has built barracks to accommodate up to 400,000 Rohingya in the future. The resettlement has been going on for several months. Infrastructure on Bhasan Char is better than in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The houses are made of concrete and are solidly built. There are opportunities to earn a small income on the island and land that can be cultivated. Nevertheless, the residents are trapped in the middle of the sea. They can only leave the island for approved family visits. Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised the island which is still lacks the assistance of international NGOs. During a visit last year, Rohingya gave us letters asking for help.

In Bangladesh it is palpable that the government wants to get rid of the Rohingya as soon as possible. The economic upswing in recent years has slowed down due to the COVID-19 crisis. Last year, Bangladesh approached the IMF for assistance. The government must now cut costs which has resulted in power outages and rising fuel prices. Elections in Bangladesh are slated for the end of the year. Protest marches are already taking place, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the authoritarian prime minister. The Rohingyas are in danger of being caught in the crossfire. They are trapped in a country that is increasingly faced with other problems.

* Andreas Babst is South Asia correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung based in Delhi.