Rohingya crisis takes rising toll on Bangladesh

Today marks the World Refugee Day, a reminder of the plight of millions of displaced people worldwide.

The day holds particular significance for Bangladesh, which has been hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees for about a decade, bearing a considerable humanitarian responsibility with compassion and resilience.

The Rohingya refugee crisis is often told through the lives of displaced people in the camps. But in Cox’s Bazar, another side of the crisis has also grown over the years: the pressure on local Bangladeshi communities living around the camps.

Nearly nine years after the 2017 influx from Myanmar, people in Ukhiya and Teknaf continue to share roads, markets, land, forests, public services and aid with one of the world’s largest refugee populations.

According to UNHCR’s Bangladesh operational data, accessed on June 19, 2026, Bangladesh hosts close to one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

They live mainly in 33 highly congested camps in Cox’s Bazar, while around 35,000 refugees have been relocated to Bhasan Char since 2021.

Nadia Islam, an international law expert, told The New Nation that the long presence of the camps has turned the refugee response into a local development challenge as well as a humanitarian crisis.

“For host communities, the issue is no longer only about emergency shelter given to people fleeing persecution. It is also about jobs, prices, the environment, local services and the pressure of living beside a crisis that has no clear end.”

The 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis, launched on March 24, 2025, recognises this concern.

One of its five key objectives is to foster the well-being of host communities, including income generation, employment and access to basic services, with a focus on localisation and capacity-building.

The crisis is not limited to the camps. The surrounding Bangladeshi communities are also part of the response because they have carried the social and economic weight of the displacement for years.

Speaking to The New Nation, Abdullah-Al-Monzur Hussain, a professor and dean of the Department of Law of Dhaka International University said, “Economic pressure is one of the biggest concerns.

When a large number of people are concentrated in a small area, local markets change. Demand for goods rises, demand for transport increases and competition around low-paid work becomes sharper.”

An earlier impact assessment by the United Nations Development Programme, the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh and the local administration of Cox’s Bazar, unveiled in July 2019, examined the effect of the Rohingya influx on host communities.

According to the findings cited by UNDP, the study looked at prices, wages, poverty, environment, livelihood, public services and social cohesion.

The report said prices of daily essentials had risen by 50 percent since the refugee influx, wages of day labourers had fallen, more than 2,500 households had fallen below the poverty line, and 5,500 acres of reserved forests and 1,500 hectares of wildlife habitat had been destroyed.

Manzur said, “Environmental pressure has also become a major issue in Cox’s Bazar.

The sudden need for shelter, fuel, roads and camp facilities after 2017 placed heavy pressure on forests and hills in Ukhiya and Teknaf.

The loss of forest resources affected not only biodiversity but also local livelihoods, fuel collection and disaster risk.”

Humanitarian assistance is mainly directed at refugees because they are dependent on aid and have limited access to formal education and jobs. But host communities also need support, especially in areas directly affected by the camps.

Declining humanitarian funding could significantly worsen conditions for around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Around 150,000 more Rohingya had arrived since early 2024 because of renewed violence in Myanmar, reports Reuters.

The UN and the Bangladesh government launched a $710.5 million appeal to fund food, shelter, healthcare, education and protection services, but the appeal remained about 60 percent funded.

Experts also said that the host communities in Cox’s Bazar have provided space and support during a major humanitarian emergency.

But long-term pressure can create frustration if local people feel they are being left behind while international attention focuses mainly on the camps.

Still, assistance cannot solve the core problem. The pressure on host communities will continue as long as the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved.

Without safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation to Myanmar, Cox’s Bazar will continue to carry a burden that is local in impact but international in cause, experts said.