Rohingya crisis
Rohingya families fled violence. But uncertainty about the future grips those living in the world’s largest refugee settlement.
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What is the Rohingya crisis?
When hundreds of thousands of terrified Rohingya refugees began flooding onto the beaches and paddy fields of southern Bangladesh in August 2017, it was the children who caught many people’s attention. As the refugees – almost 60 per cent of whom were children – poured across the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, they brought with them accounts of the unspeakable violence and brutality that had forced them to flee.
By the end of August 2021, Bangladesh was hosting more than 890,000 Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar District, around half of whom were children. Those fleeing attacks and violence in the 2017 exodus joined around 300,000 people already in Bangladesh from previous waves of displacement, effectively forming the world’s largest refugee camp.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new threat to these overcrowded conditions. Many refugees live in flimsy bamboo and tarpaulin shelters where the dangers of everyday life remain all too real. On 22 March 2021, a fire in Cox’s Bazar caused widespread devastation when it quickly spread across four Rohingya refugee camps, displacing around 50,000 refugees – half of whom were children.
Read UNICEF’s 2022 humanitarian appeal for Bangladesh here
How is the Rohingya crisis affecting children?
While basic services have been provided, children still face disease outbreaks, malnutrition, inadequate educational opportunities and the risks related to neglect, exploitation and violence including gender-based violence risks, child marriage and child labour. Meanwhile, annual cycles of heavy monsoon and cyclones pose substantial risks to both Rohingya refugees and host communities.
In Myanmar, most Rohingya have no legal identity or citizenship and statelessness remains a significant concern. Rohingya children in Rakhine State, meanwhile, have been hemmed in by violence, forced displacement and restrictions on freedom of movement.
Until the conditions are in place in Myanmar that would allow Rohingya families to return home with basic rights – safety from violence, citizenship, free movement, health and education – they are stuck as refugees or internally displaced persons living in overcrowded and sometimes dangerous conditions.
Older children and adolescents who are deprived of opportunities to learn or make a living are at real risk of becoming a “lost generation”
Older children and adolescents who are deprived of opportunities to learn or make a living are at real risk of becoming a “lost generation”, ready prey to traffickers and those who would exploit them for political or other ends. Girls and women are at particular risk of sexual and other gender-based violence in this situation, including being forced into early marriage and being left out of school as parents keep them at home.
What is UNICEF doing to help children in the Rohingya crisis?
UNICEF is on the ground, working with the government and partners, helping to deliver life-saving supplies and services for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
To help reduce the spread of COVID-19, for example, UNICEF and partners have been providing safe water and soap supplies, and have installed communal handwashing stations in the camps. UNICEF is also making sure that children have access to life-saving information on protecting themselves and their communities against the coronavirus.
Read more about UNICEF’s work and results.
Get the most up to date statistics available on the situation in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Crisis snapshot
Recent Rohingya crisis news and features
What UNICEF is doing
UNICEF is on the ground working to help deliver life-saving supplies and services for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Working with the government and partners, UNICEF is helping provide water and sanitation, including the establishment of diarrhoeal treatment centres, health services for children and pregnant women; support for access to quality education, including establishing learning centres; and is reaching children affected by violence, abuse and neglect with prevention and assistance.
Read UNICEF’s 2022 Humanitarian Action for Children appeals for Bangladesh and Myanmar.