The Human Rights Watch has urged Bangladesh鈥檚 interim government to urgently lift restrictions on education for Rohingyas and allow Rohingya children to enrol in schools outside the Cox鈥檚 Bazar refugee camps.
In a press release issued on Thursday, the US-based international human rights organisation also said that lack of education opportunities had also increased the children鈥檚 vulnerability to spiralling violence by armed groups and criminal gangs in the camps, including abduction, recruitment and trafficking.
It observed that the United States and other foreign donors鈥� cutbacks in humanitarian aid had worsened the existing education crisis for 4,37,000 school-age children in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, with schools that served hundreds of thousands of children shut down.
The cutbacks have closed 鈥榣earning centres鈥� run by aid groups in the camps.
Community-based schools are still operating and are considered better but lack government recognition and are therefore ineligible for donor support, and have to charge fees that many families cannot afford.
鈥楾he US and other donor governments are abandoning education for Rohingya children after the previous Bangladesh government long blocked it,鈥� said Bill Van Esveld, associate children鈥檚 rights director at the Human Rights Watch.
鈥楾he interim government of Bangladesh should uphold everyone鈥檚 right to education, while donors should support the Rohingya community鈥檚 efforts to prevent a lost generation of students,鈥� he added.
With increasing violence, abductions of children were so frequent in late 2024 that many parents stopped allowing their children to leave their shelters to go to schools, refugees said.
Protection monitors reported 51 child abductions in the first quarter of 2025.
With the learning centres shut down due to the funding crisis, whether or not funding is found to re-open them, the interim government of Bangladesh and donors should recognise and fund community-led schools to increase their capacity, the HRW said.
Rohingya refugees said that community-led schools offered higher-quality education than the learning centres.
Recognition of Rohingya-led schools could encourage donor support and help achieve better instruction for more students.
鈥楾he previous Bangladesh government for years blocked education for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children because they were refugees,鈥� Van Esveld said, adding, 鈥榯he interim government should reject old policies and support education without discrimination for all children.鈥�
Earlier on June 3, 2025, the United Nations Children鈥檚 Fund suspended thousands of 鈥榣earning centres鈥� run by non-governmental organisations in the refugee camps, due to lack of funding.
鈥楤angladesh hosts over one million Rohingya refugees, 7,50,000 of whom fled the Myanmar military鈥檚 war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide in 2017,鈥� said the HRW release.
An additional 1,50,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since mid-2024 to escape hostilities between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group that now controls most of Myanmar鈥檚 Rakhine State, the release added.
