Every year on 25 August, the anniversary returns of one of Asia’s largest waves of forced displacement, when around 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State for Bangladesh to escape a large-scale military campaign of genocide accompanied by grave abuses and fuelled by religious incitement from Buddhist monks.
Nine years later, the tragedy has become a prolonged crisis in which the hardships of displacement are compounded by the absence of any clear prospect for safe return or international accountability.
More than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are still living in Bangladesh, most of them in camps in the Cox’s Bazar area, while violence and displacement continue inside Myanmar. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the conditions required for voluntary, dignified and safe return remain unavailable.
The Largest Wave of Displacement
On 25 August 2017, a large-scale military campaign of genocide erupted in Rakhine State, forcing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to cross the border into Bangladesh within a matter of weeks.
According to UNHCR figures, more than 688,000 had arrived in Bangladesh by the beginning of 2018, while the number who fled during the August 2017 wave alone later exceeded 750,000.
With such large numbers arriving over a short period, Cox’s Bazar became one of the world’s largest refugee concentrations. Bangladesh went on to host successive waves of Rohingya who had fled Rakhine State over decades of persecution.
The World’s Largest Stateless Minority
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority historically concentrated in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
They were deprived of citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, which did not recognise them among the ethnic groups acknowledged by the legislation.
As a result, the Rohingya became the world’s largest stateless population, facing longstanding restrictions on freedom of movement, employment, education and access to essential services.
UNHCR says their deprivation of citizenship remains one of the root causes of the continuing crisis.
The restrictions have not been limited to their legal status. They have also shaped daily life through constraints on movement, access to healthcare and education, and employment opportunities, driving growing numbers to seek refuge outside the country.
Life on Hold in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps
Nine years after the major wave of displacement, around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees are living in Bangladesh, including more than 1.16 million in Cox’s Bazar and around 34,000 on Bhasan Char island, according to the latest data compiled by the Bangladeshi government and UNHCR through June 2026.
Inside the camps, refugees continue to face funding shortages and declining access to essential services, while the risks associated with poverty, overcrowding, violence, crime and human trafficking are increasing.
In May 2026, the United Nations and its partners launched an updated humanitarian plan worth US$710.5 million to provide minimum life-saving assistance to refugees and host communities.
UNHCR said the plan was only 60 per cent funded by the middle of the year.
Generations Born in Exile
The Rohingya crisis is no longer limited to those who lived through the events of 2017.
An entire generation of children has grown up inside refugee camps without knowing their homeland, while facing limited opportunities for education, movement and employment.
As their stay in the camps continues, the prospect of return has become increasingly complicated, particularly because most refugees refuse to return to Rakhine without guarantees concerning security, civil rights, citizenship and the ability to live with dignity.
The United Nations has warned that current conditions in Myanmar still do not permit a voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return, as fighting and instability continue in Rakhine State.
Why Has the Return Been Delayed?
According to Reuters, Myanmar authorities say they have verified around 308,797 people from lists containing more than 828,000 names submitted by Bangladesh.
However, they maintain that repatriation will not begin until the security situation in Rakhine State improves.
The dispute is not limited to security. Rohingya refugees are also demanding guarantees of their fundamental rights, particularly legal recognition of their identity and citizenship, and assurances that they will not be returned to areas where protection and rights remain absent.
Myanmar and Bangladesh previously proposed repatriation arrangements in 2018 and 2019, but those plans did not result in any mass return because refugees feared continuing persecution and the absence of safe conditions.
The suffering of the Rohingya has also extended beyond the refugee camps of Bangladesh.
Renewed fighting in Rakhine has driven more people to flee, while others have taken to the sea on dangerous journeys towards Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries in the region.
UNHCR says the increase in irregular maritime movements is exposing refugees and asylum seekers to severe risks as violence worsens and safe spaces across the region continue to shrink.
The journey out of Myanmar has therefore become a repeated cycle of displacement, from villages in Rakhine to camps in Bangladesh and, in some cases, onward by sea in search of another place offering even a minimum level of safety.
Between Myanmar and Bangladesh
Myanmar insists that Rohingya repatriation is a bilateral matter between itself and Bangladesh, while linking their return to improvements in the security situation in Rakhine.
The international community, however, maintains that repatriation cannot simply involve moving people across a border. It must be voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable, while addressing the root causes of the crisis, including discrimination, deprivation of rights and violence.
In this context, the United Nations continues to press for a long-term political solution, stressing the need to address the causes that led to displacement rather than merely managing its humanitarian consequences.
Efforts to repatriate Rohingya have also extended to other countries in the region.
Myanmar announced its readiness to receive around 5,000 Rohingya refugees from Malaysia, but Kuala Lumpur said no repatriation would proceed if the lives of returnees would be placed at risk.
This reflects the central dilemma surrounding repatriation. Even where preliminary approval exists, the absence of security, rights and legal guarantees remains a major obstacle to implementation.
Genocide Case Before the International Court of Justice
Alongside the refugee crisis, the international legal battle over what happened to the Rohingya continues.
On 11 November 2019, The Gambia filed a case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing it of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The case was based on acts that The Gambia said had been committed against the Rohingya, including killings, physical and psychological harm, forced displacement and the imposition of living conditions capable of bringing about the destruction of the group.
The court previously issued provisional measures ordering Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide against the Rohingya and to preserve evidence related to the case.
The proceedings have become one of the most prominent international legal avenues concerning the Rohingya crisis, while the prospect of a final ruling and accountability for those responsible for violations continues to attract widespread attention.
The anniversary of 25 August is no longer simply an occasion to remember the events of 2017. It has become an annual reminder that one of Asia’s largest episodes of mass displacement remains unresolved.
Nine years later, more than one million Rohingya are still living outside their homeland, while violence continues in Rakhine, prospects for return remain increasingly complicated and the humanitarian response faces worsening funding shortages.
