The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its humanitarian partners are urgently preparing to assist up to 150,000 Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, over the past 18 months. Targeted violence and persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, as well as the ongoing war in the neighboring country, have forced thousands of Rohingya to seek protection in Bangladesh.
“This movement of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, spread over months, is the largest from Myanmar since 2017, when some 750,000 fled the deadly violence in their native Rakhine State,” Babar Baloch, UNHCR spokesperson, told journalists on Friday in Geneva.
“Bangladesh has generously hosted Rohingya refugees for generations. In Cox’s Bazar, these new arrivals join another nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees crammed into just 24 square kilometers – making the camps one of the world’s most densely populated places.”
In August 2017, more than 740,000 Rohingya sought refuge in Cox's Bazar to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously fled. Large-scale forced displacement of Rohingya from Rakhine State also occurred following violence in 1978, 1992, 2012, and 2016.
For more than 50 years, members of the Rohingya Muslim minority have fled to neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, to escape persecution and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. An estimated 500,000 Rohingya still living in Myanmar's Rakhine State are unable to move freely and face persecution, forced displacement, and violence.
An estimated 1.15 million people — 1.143 million of whom are registered — now live in the world's largest refugee settlement in the Cox's Bazar region, an area on the coast of the Bay of Bengal that is extremely vulnerable to cyclones, floods, landslides, fires, and the effects of climate change. Families live in bamboo-and-tarpaulin huts and have limited opportunities for livelihood or schooling.
Of the new arrivals in Bangladesh, nearly 121,000 had been biometrically identified by the end of June, and it is believed that more are residing informally in the already overcrowded refugee camps. The overwhelming majority are women and children.
Now in its eighth year, the Rohingya humanitarian crisis has largely faded from the international spotlight, but the situation remains urgent. Rohingya refugees continue to be in a precarious situation, completely dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive, as they are unable to leave the camps or legally work to support their families.
“More humanitarian support is urgently required as the new arrivals are largely dependent on the solidarity of those living in the camps, overstretching severely diminished resources,” Baloch said.
"Biometric identification has allowed humanitarian partners in Bangladesh to provide the new arrivals with basic services, including food, medical care, education and essential relief items."
However, these efforts will soon dry up without an immediate injection of funds, he said. Access to shelter and other necessities is insufficient due to limited resources.
The 2025 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis seeks US$934.5 million from the international community to fund protection, shelter, and basic necessities for refugees in the camps, as well as opportunities for self-reliance. As of July, however, the JRP is only 33 percent funded.
Yet, the initial JRP plan did not account for approximately 120,000 new refugee arrivals.
High levels of food insecurity are significantly affecting refugees in Cox’s Bazar, with 20 percent experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC 4) and 20 percent experiencing crisis levels (IPC 3). More than 81,000 children are suffering from or are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
Due to the acute global funding crisis, the critical needs of newly arrived refugees and those already present will go unmet, putting essential services for the entire Rohingya refugee population at risk of collapse.
UNHCR warns that, without additional funding, health services will be severely disrupted by September, and essential cooking fuel (LPG) will run out. By December, food assistance will stop. Education for approximately 230,000 children, including 63,000 new arrivals, is at risk of discontinuation.
“Refugees in the camps have already felt the impact of these reductions. They fear more cuts are looming,” Baloch stressed.
“This is fueling a sense of desperation and anxiety, and driving some to embark on dangerous sea journeys to other countries in search of safety and a more dignified life for their families.”
The dire humanitarian situation in the refugee camps and in Myanmar is being exacerbated by funding cuts and is having a devastating impact on the lives of the Rohingya people. More and more of them are resorting to dangerous journeys to seek safety, protection, and a dignified life for themselves and their families.
Two boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar in May resulted in the deaths of an estimated 427 Rohingya refugees, making it the deadliest tragedy involving Rohingya refugees attempting to find safety this year.
Reports suggest that approximately 514 Rohingya refugees were traveling on the two vessels. The boats reportedly carried refugees from camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, as well as people fleeing Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Nearly one in seven people attempting perilous sea journeys in this region have been reported dead or missing so far this year, making the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal some of the deadliest waters in the world.
More than 9,100 Rohingya attempted to flee by boat in 2024 alone. More than 650 have died or gone missing en route.
Meanwhile, the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar remains officially closed and under surveillance by the Border Guard of Bangladesh.
Baloch said that UNHCR and its partners are grateful that the Bangladeshi government has authorized newly arrived Rohingya refugees to access emergency assistance and essential services in the Cox’s Bazar camps.
“As the conflict in Myanmar continues unabated, however, we are advocating with the Bangladeshi authorities to provide managed access to safety and asylum for civilians fleeing the conflict,” the UNHCR spokesperson said.
"Over the years, the generous support from Bangladesh and the international community has been critical in meeting Rohingya refugees’ most basic needs and providing protection. Every aspect of the refugee response is affected by the funding scarcity."
UNHCR is calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Bangladesh and other countries in the region that are hosting Rohingya refugees.
“Until there is peace and stability in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, conducive to safe and voluntary return, the international community must continue to support efforts to provide life-saving assistance to Rohingya forced to flee,” Baloch added.
According to a recent UN report published in May 2025, armed resistance groups have made significant advances in Myanmar, gaining control over large areas of territory. In response, the military has regularly carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling in populated areas, resulting in more civilian casualties in 2024 than in previous years.
Fighting was particularly intense in Rakhine State, where the ethnic armed organization Arakan Army (AA) took control of the regional military headquarters and numerous bases, obtaining nearly complete control of the state. Tens of thousands of Rohingya were driven from their homes in Myanmar as intense fighting between junta forces and the AA engulfed Rakhine.
Civilians caught between the military and the AA regularly faced killings, disappearances, mutilations, arbitrary arrests, torture, village destruction, and widespread displacement. According to the UN, conditions currently remain unfit for the safe and sustainable return of Rohingya to Rakhine State.
Violence in Myanmar spiraling
The military junta is increasing its attacks on monasteries, schools, and camps sheltering people displaced by the civil war, causing violence in Myanmar to spiral. Following four years of fierce civil war and devastating earthquakes more than three months ago, the number of people in Myanmar in need of humanitarian assistance has risen to an unprecedented 22 million.
Since 2021, when the country's military seized power in a coup, Myanmar has been embroiled in a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of civilians. Since October 2023, a coalition of ethnic rebel forces has escalated its offensive to oust the junta.
Humanitarian needs in Myanmar have reached record levels, with 21.9 million people in need of aid. Before the earthquakes hit, 19.9 million people were identified as needing assistance. Following the March earthquakes, an additional 2 million people are now in urgent need.
Furthermore, the global humanitarian funding crisis is having major negative repercussions in Myanmar, where only 12 percent of the humanitarian needs and response plan are funded.
An estimated 3.5 million people have been displaced within the country. An estimated 1.5 million people have fled to neighboring countries or crossed borders by sea. Civilians continue to flee their homes due to fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and various non-state armed groups (NSAGs).
Nearly a third of the country's population is facing acute food insecurity. According to an early warning report released in June by the United Nations, Myanmar is one of the world’s most critical hunger hotspots and requires urgent attention to save lives and livelihoods.