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Gallery|Rohingya

One year on: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Since August 25, 2017, some 700,000 people crossed the border to escape a fierce crackdown by Myanmar’s army.

[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A brick-paved road cuts through the Balukhali refugee camp. In July 2018, Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $100m grant for Bangladesh to rehabilitate roads within the camps and better connect food distribution and storage centres, hospitals and schools and improve emergency access. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
By Sorin Furcoi
Published On 23 Aug 201823 Aug 2018
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At least 90 percent of the Rohingya population in Myanmar’s Rakhine state fled to neighbouring Bangladesh last year to escape a campaign of violence conducted by the Myanmar army and described by the United Nations as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

Since August 25, 2017, some 700,000 people crossed the border, bringing with them stories of extreme violence, burned villages, murders and rape.

According to the UN, Bangladesh is hosting more than 960,000 Rohingya refugees, including those who arrived a year ago. But the Bangladeshi authorities say the number exceeds one million.

The vast majority of the latest arrivals are located in the densely-populated Kutupalong-Balukhali complex, known as the “Mega Camp” and home to more than 600,000 people.

Bangladeshi authorities have recently announced plans to relocate 100,000 Rohingya living in border camps to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited river island that emerged from the silt around 20 years ago in the Bay of Bengal.

The government says it will spend some $280m to build housing and infrastructure, suggesting that the island could be used by Bangladeshi people once the Rohingya population is repatriated.

But the plan has drawn criticism from human rights groups, with Human Rights Watch saying the island is unfit to build accommodation on because of its vulnerability to high waves, tides and extreme weather events.

One year into the latest Rohingya crisis, Aung San Suu Kyi has meanwhile defended her government’s actions in Rakhine state and refused to recognise the atrocities committed by the Myanmar military.

[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A Rohingya man carrying firewood. The refugees' dependency on firewood for cooking has created an environmental crisis in the border district of Cox's Bazar, according to Bangladeshi officials. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
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Rohingya [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
Rohingya refugees walk up to 8km every time they venture into the forests surrounding the camps to collect firewood. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
International NGOs together with Bangladeshi authorities have started distributing gas cylinders to families in the camp in response to the warnings of an environmental crisis. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A Rohingya refugee cuts his young son's hair in front of their shelter, deep in the Balukhali camp. The UN's refugee agency estimates that children make up 55 percent of the total refugee population. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
More than half a million Rohingya refugee children are being denied the chance of a proper education, UNICEF said in a report marking one year since the start of the latest influx of Rohingya into Bangladesh. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A family counting exercise conducted in December 2017 by UNHCR found more than 5,500 families being led by children under 18. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
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[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A survey carried out by Oxfam before the start of the monsoon season found that more than half of the Rohingya refugees were almost completely unprepared for the floods, landslides and disease that accompany the monsoon weather. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A total of 200,000 out of more than 900,000 refugees are categorised as at risk from flooding and landslides. About 24,000 of them are considered as being at high risk. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
Rohingya refugees have set up shops in the camps to make a living. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A Rohingya man sells fish in a market in Kutupalong refugee camp. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A local market outside Nayapara camp in Teknaf, south of Cox's Bazar. The majority of the shopkeepers in the market are Rohingya refugees. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A Rohingya refugee sells freshwater prawns caught in the small streams around the refugee camps. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
A Rohingya rickshaw driver in Kutupalong refugee camp. Most of the rickshaw drivers in the camps cannot venture outside with their customers as they don't have the legal right to work in Bangladesh. But they are allowed to ferry clients inside the "Mega Camp". [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
[Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
Kutupalong- Balukhali settlement complex has not only become the largest refugee camp in the world, but also the most densely populated, according to UN. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]


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