A Refugee Compact for the Rohingya

Nearly one million Rohingya refugees currently reside in camps in Bangladesh. Most Rohingya live in temporary settlements where conditions are not safe.

The Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh cannot repatriate without threat from Myanmar’s military government, and any attempts at large-scale repatriation are against their best interests. Repatriation is no longer an option for the Rohingya until conditions fundamentally change.

Originally fleeing atrocities and acts of genocide committed by Myanmar’s military, the Rohingya are still at risk of state-sanctioned violence if they return to their homes. If Myanmar could commit to reparations for the injustices committed by military forces and ensure legal protections, such as granting Myanmar citizenship to the Rohingya, repatriation could be a viable possibility. International organizations have documented grave human rights abuses against the 600,000 Rohingya that remain in Myanmar.

While the United Nations hopes to work towards the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, this goal is unrealistic without significant changes in Myanmar’s government. After the military coup against the country’s democratic leadership in February 2021, Myanmar can no longer be expected to protect its repatriated refugees .

Bangladesh cannot host the Rohingya without appropriate burden-sharing and reliable international support. The Cox’s Bazar District, which hosts most Rohingya refugees, already experiences economic uncertainty, with about 33% of the population living in abject poverty. The large-scale influx of refugees has had adverse effects on host communities, and domestic pressure has led the Government of Bangladesh to relocate some Rohingya to the poorly-resourced island of Bhasan Char. Foreign donor support has waned with the pandemic and new humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine, but the Government of Bangladesh expects to pay $1.2 billion USD per year to support the Rohingya.

The Rohingya encampments are some of the largest and most densely populated in the world. Most of these temporary shelters are prone to damage from mudslides, heavy winds and rainfall, and flooding—common during the monsoon season. The camps lack proper water and sanitation facilities, increasing the risk for disease outbreaks. The conditions of Rohingya camps have become dire, especially as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. Violence and organized crime have a significant presence in the camps, and for women, concerns about gender-based violence and harassment have only grown.

The response to the Rohingya crisis has consisted of short-term aid initiatives rather than long-term development approaches. Without long-term financial support, Bangladesh will not have the capacity to support the Rohingya. Safe return may become possible in the future, but until then, the international community must share the burden of protracted displacement.

Durable solutions for the Rohingya require looking ahead to medium-term strategies for temporary integration and securing financial investment for refugee hosting. The most promising path forward is for the Government of Bangladesh to implement a refugee compact with the international community . In practice, compact models can support host countries with the developmental and humanitarian needs of refugee crises. By designing a multi-year plan for improving the living conditions of Rohingya refugees, the Government of Bangladesh can access financial capital beyond traditional grant-based aid in exchange for access to longer-term development funding.

These large-scale funds can go towards improving conditions for the Rohingya by building more durable settlements, maintaining better water and sanitation facilities, and improving livelihoods in the camps. A compact with the Government of Bangladesh can also incentivize policy reform for the Rohingya, such as issuing temporary work permits and implementing education programming. The Rohingya are not permitted to work, and education initiatives have been prohibited in the camps, making them fully reliant on humanitarian aid. A 2021 survey by UNHCR found that over half of the Rohingya and 30% of children aged 15 to 17 were informally working, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and arrest.

Additionally, refugees are heavily restricted from traveling within or outside the camps—facing intimidation, curfews, and harassment at checkpoints. Bangladesh authorities have arbitrarily demolished thousands of refugee-run shops in the Cox’s Bazar camps—destroying the informal marketplaces that had become vital sources of income for refugees. These restrictions on livelihoods, movement, and education severely hamper the ability of the Rohingya to support themselves and their communities. By making policy changes in these areas, we can ensure that Rohingya refugees will have access to opportunities to improve their well-being. In exchange, the international community can provide tangible incentives to Bangladesh for improving the camps through trade concessions, low-interest loans, or partnerships with donor governments or development actors.

In recent years, refugee compacts have been implemented in Jordan, Lebanon, and Ethiopia and show great promise for both refugees and host communities. For example, Jordan’s 2016 Refugee Compact was essential to securing universal education for Syrian children and increasing the number of work permits issued to Syrian refugees. Through the Jordan Compact, the Government of Jordan committed to increasing education and employment opportunities for Syrian refugees, and in exchange, the European Union and the World Bank pledged nearly $2 billion USD in grants and low-interest loans. Years after the Jordan Compact was implemented, the number of work permits issued to Syrian refugees has reached its highest level since the program’s implementation—giving Syrian refugees critical access to the Jordanian labor market and the protections the formal labor force provides.

Refugee compacts are not tantamount to permanent integration or resettlement, but they are the best path forward for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. They offer financial resources necessary for offsetting the burden of refugee populations and ensure essential services for refugee and host communities in the long term. By designing a refugee compact between the Government of Bangladesh and the international community, we can ensure the long-term sustainability of the Rohingya humanitarian response. We can create comprehensive pathways to education, employment, and self-sufficiency, and we can enable refugees to move freely throughout their host communities until conditions are safe enough to return home. As the Rohingya continue to be displaced from their homes, the international community must support both refugees and their host communities in Bangladesh through this crisis.