MYANMAR鈥橲 military campaign caused more than 700,000 Rohingyas flee to Bangladesh, beginning this day eight years ago.听 The Rohingyas, the most persecuted ethnic community that time and its defenders the world over observes Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day today, making it a occasion for reflections on the horrors, the need for justice and accountability.
The 2017 violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar had a legacy of sufferings that was unimaginable. Villages were burnt, families separated and survivors left facing murder, rape and the destruction of their houses and their living. Since then, the international community has labelled the atrocities crimes against humanity. In response, many of the Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh now live in sprawling, crowded camps. There are more than 1.2 million of them in Cox鈥檚 Bazar and about 30,000 on the island of Bhasan Char.
Moreover, about 150,000 Rohingyas arrived over the past six months. Kutupalong, the most populous of the settlements, is a labyrinth of jerry-built shelters that cannot meet even the most basic needs. Inside the camps, many roads turn to mucks during the monsoon season. Clean water is hard to come by. And, medical centers remain overwhelmed. Recent reductions in international aid make this even more challenging, putting more families at further risk of malnutrition and illness.
For many, the trauma of 2017 is still fresh. Older Rohingyas recall fleeing with only the shirts on while a generation of children born in the camps have known nothing but fear and insecurity. One young mother said, 鈥業 was nine when I came here with my parents. Now I have a daughter and she has never visited our village in Myanmar. This is our home where we don鈥檛 belong.鈥�
Remembrance Day in the camps is commanding. Every year, thousands descend to honour the dead, some hold placards reading 鈥榃e want to go back home.鈥� For survivors, it is a day to mourn those gone, to share accounts of survival and to insist in unbroken voice that they, too, are remembered and brought home.
But the prospect of their return to Myanmar is dim. The discriminatory and institutional conditions that fuelled the violence in 2017 persist. Rakhine State is still unsafe, with sporadic fighting, restricted ability to deliver humanitarian assistance and continuous rights violations. With political deadlock and no consensus among the world鈥檚 elite, the prospects for any repatriation are almost zero, leaving the Rohingya trapped in a legal limbo suspended between hope and despair.
Life at the camps is a daily challenge. More than three-quarters of them are women and children, typically unable to move freely and have minimal access to education and vocational training. For the families, survival is a lesson they learn every day. There are no formal lessons there. Children learn in makeshift classrooms in tarpaulin houses or the muddy lanes between tarpaulin shacks.
Healthcare services are stretched thin. Basic medicines often run out at the clinics and giving birth in a rudimentary clinic or at home in a camp is routine, because of safety and transport difficulties. Maternal death rates are well above Bangladesh鈥檚 national average, a testament to the fragility of life in the camps.
Education is another pressing concern. More than half of the camp鈥檚 residents are under 18, but schooling is a pipe dream for most. Humanitarian groups find it challenging to provide for classes, but with limited resources, logistical problems and the transient nature of their housing, formal education is difficult. And messy classrooms, piecemeal tutoring and the gravel families and volunteers offer glimmers of hope for the next generation.
Yet, there are stories of resilience. Young Rohingyas build libraries from books donated on the edge of their small communities. Women鈥檚 associations run workshops to teach sewing, braiding and small-scale entrepreneurship as ways to earn money and form co-operatives to generate income on a larger scale. Some older people mentor the youth, sharing their memories of their homeland and their sense of identity and pride. One young man says: 鈥榃e may not have a country yet to return to, but we have one other. We tell stories, teach our language and try to keep our culture alive. That is how we survive.鈥� The humanity of the stories tells the world that the Rohingya are not victims only, but heroes of hope, strength and determination.
The international community has made significant efforts to respond to the crisis 鈥� with humanitarian aid to meet the needs. Within a few months of the August 2017 influx, Pope Francis, the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres were some of the first high-profile visitors to the Cox鈥檚 Bazar camps in 2018. Their presence served as a reminder of the gravity of Myanmar鈥檚 crimes and the pressing need for international action. Among others, three famous female Nobel Peace laureates, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Tawakkol Karman of Yemen and Shirin Ebadi of Iran visited the Rohingya settlements in 2018 and denounced Myanmar鈥檚 actions while they demanded justice. The camps were also visited by numerous state officials from around the world. Priyanka Chopra and Angelina Jolie were among the celebrities who visited the camps, garnering international media coverage and boosting public compassion for the world鈥檚 most persecuted population.
However, the number of such visits and the degree of international engagement decreased by 2019 as the crisis continued without a definitive resolution. The initial surge of international attention did not result in a sustainable, long-term solution. It decreased further during the Covid outbreak. International funding decreased, repatriation efforts stalled and diplomatic pressure on Myanmar declined. With conditions in overcrowded camps getting worse and no way for their return in dignity, the Rohingya were left in limbo.
When Antonio Guterres visited again the Rohingya camps in March 2025, food rations had been drastically reduced from $12 to $6 a person. This was at a time when the Arakan Army had taken over Rakhine and insecurity within the camps was on the rise. His visit briefly rekindled international concern, but the Rohingya are still stateless and face an uncertain and dismal future in the absence of tangible commitments. But the efforts face long odds, with Myanmar鈥檚 unwillingness to cooperate and complicated regional politics.
The United Nations has also been a store of activity, with its secretary general Ant贸nio Guterres visiting the camps twice and denounced the aid cuts in March 2025. He stressed the pressing priority of ongoing international assistance to avoid more sufferings of the Rohingyas. No events followed his second visit in March 2025. Rather, as an aftermath of his visit and 鈥榩roposal鈥�, a potential establishment of 鈥榟umanitarian passage鈥� or 鈥榗orridor鈥� for Rakhine/Rohingyas created mixed reaction. Eventually, Cox鈥檚 Bazar received about 150,000 Rohingyas from Rakhine in the past few months while 50,000 more are on way to arrive.
Eight years of exile, trauma and loss, not all the aid in the world can eradicate. International justice remains essential. It has led to calls for the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice to hold Myanmar to account for the horrors it has committed. Aside from the legal action, the Rohingyas want recognition, an end to statelessness and a safe way back home with dignity. Malaysia, Bangladesh and other regional partners are expected to send a combined delegation to Myanmar to call for peace and deliver humanitarian aid to the Rohingya.
Amid utter uncertainty, the Rohingyas spend the eighth anniversary of a forced exodus in grief and hope. They remember those who are missing, honour the strength of those who survive and call for a future where they can live away from persecution. But to the rest, every August 25 comes for them to observe the day, without bringing any significant change in their destitute lives.
With all uncertainties, the Rohingyas are not forgotten although they have a long road ahead. Their bravery, resilience and determination reflect clearly and more deeply on what this means for humanity, rights, justice and the shared responsibility to support the uprooted people. The Rohingyas tell the whole world to lament what the world has done in the past and to hold the world accountable for the survival of the displaced people with dignity, recognition, and prospect of a return home soon.
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Dr Ala Uddin ([email protected]) is a professor of anthropology at University of Chittagong.