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At least 10 or more Rohingya women, many underaged and malnourished, bear child every day in a single hospital at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar.

‘Every day, 10 to 15 Rohingya women give birth to child in this health centre, about a half through normal deliveries. On average, the monthly figure stands at 400,’ Dr Kazi Golam Rasul, senior director and head of health at Friendship Hospital at Ukhiya, told a delegation, including foreign diplomats, politicians, government officials and journalists, when they visited a camp on Tuesday.

He told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that many of the newborns’ mothers were underage, while many others also came with different complications as they tried normal delivery at camp houses.

He said that child marriage was a common phenomenon in Rohinygya camps and many of the pregnant women suffer from malnutrition.

Golam Rasul said that it was the biggest health facility providing services to both Rohingyas and host communities nearby.’

‘We run seven more primary healthcare centres and one health post in the camps,’ he added.

The primary healthcare centres can handle only normal childbirth, he said.

Besides, around 120 new births of Rohingyas are registered with Hope Field Hospital in Ukhiya, said the Hope Foundation for Women and Children of Bangladesh’s country director KM Zahiduzzaman.

He said that they handled four or five labour patients a day.

Zahiduzzaman said that they also operate some more primary health centres in the Rohingya camps.

Rohingya community member Mohammad Yunus, 51, said that he entered Bangladesh in 2017 amid atrocities by the Mayanmar military in their Rakhine state.

‘We are 10 in number in my family. We have eight children, four daughters and four sons,’ he said at Kutupalong camp.

He said that, like most of them in the camp, he had no livelihood and depended on relief for living.

Officials said that the number of Rohingyas was increasing fast as they were not used to any birth control methods.

There are around 26 Rohingya camps, providing shelter to around nine lakh Rohingyas in Ukhiya upazila, while the rest, out of 11.5 lakh registered Rohingya people, are sheltered in seven camps in Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar and another camp in Bhasan Char of  Noakhali, according to the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner.

Addressing the Stakeholders› Dialogue on the Rohingya Situation as the chief guest in beach town Cox’s Bazar on Monday, chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus said that the number of Rohingya people reached 13 lakh with 32,000 new births yearly.

Rohingya children are growing up in utter uncertainty, with no adequate arrangements for their basic needs and education due to fund crisis. The International Rescue Committee estimates that around 500,000 children are missing out on learning in Cox’s Bazar, as no child under 12 currently has access to schooling due to funding constraints, according to media reports.

Professor Yunus at the stakeholders’ dialogue on Monday rolled out a seven-point proposal for a sustainable solution to the protracted Rohinhya crisis before the stakeholders that included representatives from international agencies.

Not a single Rohingya returns to their homeland, Rakhine, since the biggest ever exodus in 2017 when nearly eight lakh Rohingyas entered Bangladesh for shelter.

The Rohingya people are still coming to Bangladesh due to the ongoing conflict in the Rakhine State.

Additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner Abu Saleh Mohammad Obaidullah, on August 23, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that ‘More Rohingyas are still crossing into Bangladesh due to the ongoing conflict in the Rakhine State. We have counted fresh arrivals of around 1.2 lakh Rohingyas since 2024.’