26/08/2025
Bangladesh has no capacity to provide additional resources for the 1.3 million Rohingya refugees it hosts, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said on Monday, urging the international community to devise a sustainable solution to the crisis.
Half of the refugees are children, most of whom fled Myanmar in 2017 following a military crackdown that U.N. investigators described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Hosting the Rohingya has placed immense strain on Bangladesh’s economy, environment, and governance, Yunus said at a conference in Dhaka.
“We don’t foresee any scope whatsoever for further mobilisation of resources from domestic sources, given our numerous challenges,” the Nobel peace laureate and de facto prime minister said. He called on the global community to prepare a practical roadmap for their safe return, stressing that the issue must remain on the international agenda.
Monday also marked the eighth anniversary of the 2017 exodus, when more than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh within days, transforming Cox’s Bazar into the world’s largest refugee settlement. Tens of thousands of refugees rallied in the camps, carrying banners reading “No more refugee life,” “Stop Genocide,” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution.”
Conditions in the camps remain dire, with refugees crammed into bamboo shelters amid dwindling aid, school closures, and little hope of repatriation. “Over the last seven years, we have seen countless conferences, dialogues, and press statements, but nothing has changed for us,” said community leader Sayed Ullah, who attended the Dhaka conference. “Our situation remains the same – we are still stuck in camps with no rights, no future, and no guarantee of returning home safely.”
Over the past year, an additional 150,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army has escalated.
