Rohingya refugees stand behind barbed wire at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh in September last year./ AFP
Bangladesh’s interim government will host a three-day international conference in Cox’s Bazar starting August 25, bringing together global stakeholders to address the ongoing crisis affecting stateless Rohingya refugees.
The event coincides with the eighth anniversary of the 2017 military crackdown that forced around 750,000 ethnic Rohingya to flee Myanmar’s Rakhine State—one of the largest forced migrations in recent history. Another 150,000 Rohingya have fled over the past 18 months, joining nearly 1 million now crammed into 24 square kilometers of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
The conference is a precursor to a high-level UN event on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York on September 30.
Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus, is expected to attend as the chief guest. Delegates will include foreign ministers, international envoys, UN agency representatives, and officials from Bangladesh’s overseas missions.
The conference aims to mobilize international support for Rohingya repatriation, as well as humanitarian aid for those displaced.
Five working sessions across August 24–25 will focus on humanitarian assistance and repatriation strategies, alongside cultural programs and an exhibition on refugee camp conditions.
On Friday, Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser and High Representative on Rohingya Affairs, Khalilur Rahman, confirmed that the Cox’s Bazar event is part of preparations for the upcoming UN conference, which is backed by 106 member states.
Another international conference on the Rohingya issue is scheduled for December 6 in Doha, Qatar, further amplifying global dialogue on sustainable solutions to the crisis.
“This conference is an opportunity to present a roadmap for an urgent and lasting solution,” Khalilur said, according to local media.
“The most important thing is: how long can you keep them with international aid? They have to return home. That’s the real issue.”
He noted that the crisis has worsened in recent years, with nearly 200,000 more Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh since 2023 amid clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. Meanwhile, international funding has plunged, with only $400 million pledged against the $934 million required.
Bangladesh insists that safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation to Myanmar remains the only sustainable solution.
However, experts have questioned the level of international commitment to the conference.
“No embassies or governments are sending high-level diplomats; only junior staff are attending. This underlines the lack of international weight or credibility behind the event,” said Ashfaque Ronnie, a UK-based regional conflict analyst.
He added that the money and energy spent on staging this conference were disproportionate to its likely outcomes and could be better directed toward practical solutions.
“The conference is not about advancing repatriation or meaningful solutions. Instead, it is designed as a PR showpiece to claim Bangladesh has ‘consulted’ and is ‘prepared’ for the September UN High-Level Conference.”
“Bangladesh can keep holding such conferences, but it does not bring the Rohingya crisis an inch closer to repatriation. Real engagement requires confronting realities in Myanmar and working with genuine policy actors—something absent from this exercise.”
He voiced similar doubts about the Doha conference.
Rohingya from Camps not Represented
No Rohingya representative from the Cox’s Bazar camps will attend the UN or Doha conferences, a senior Bangladeshi diplomat said.
Excluding camp-based youth leaders, human rights activists, and journalists would deprive the conference of vital expertise and leadership, said Ro Aung Myo, a Rohingya human rights activist and journalist based in the camps.
The AA’s political wing, the United League of Arakan, said it was also not invited. The AA now controls all but three townships in Rakhine but has faced allegations of forcibly displacing Rohingya communities, which it denies.
Myanmar’s junta will be represented by its Dhaka embassy.
