Women and children of thirty-three Rohingya camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazilas of the Cox’s Bazar are under serious threat of human trafficking. Well-organized trafficking networks operate in and around the camps. They often include members from both the host community and the refugee population itself.
According to data the Rohingya crisis has further intensified these vulnerabilities, with reports showing over 60 percent of Rohingya women and children in refugee camps face heightened risks of trafficking and exploitation. This sharpens the central concern: Cox’s Bazar camps are particularly susceptible to becoming hotspot for human trafficking.
In fact, the Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, constitute a majority, the second-largest ethnic group in the state. Over the last two decades, specifically since 2012, they have been faceing heightened discrimination and exploitation, with very restricted access to education, healthcare, and jobs in Myanmar, along with severe limitations on their movement. Thus, they were forced to flee their homes, cross into Bangladesh, and settle in refugee camps, and approximately 1.3 million Rohingya refugees are residing mainly in Cox’s Bazar, with women constituting around 51 percent of the population. Children make up approximately 55 percent to 60 percent.
Hence, poverty, lack of education and constrained social protection, these women and children residing in refugee camps particularly vulnerable to trafficking. In addition, up to 11.6 million refugees globally are in danger of losing access to humanitarian assistance due to cuts in foreign aid by donor nations, which have driven the Rohingya to flee from the camps.
According to a recent report, around 400,000 Rohingya children face uncertainty as fund cuts force nearly 6,400 NGO- run schools in Cox’s Bazar to shut down, which could escalate chance of making them victims of trafficking. For example, between July and September 2024, around 86 Rohingya victims of human trafficking, with 28 percent female, have been identified by the Anti-Trafficking Working Group, who are mainly trafficked for forced labour (76 pc), followed by sexual exploitation (6 pc) and forced marriage (6 pc).
From the camps, most victims were recruited through false promises of work, with 50 percent of the international trafficking cases designed for Malaysia, and many criminals were friends or neighbours, highlighting the vulnerabilities within refugee communities.
Therefore, this long-standing problem needs to be addressed by different stakeholders; international and regional organizations, journalists, academics, researchers etc.
The office of the High Representative for the Rohingya issue and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh an event in Coxes Bazar in August 2025, aimed at highlighting the cause of Rohingya plight. In the conference, the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, Professor Muhammad Yunus, urged the world community by presenting the seven-point proposal, including changing discriminatory policies against the Rohingya in Rakhine. The academicians’ thinking: policy and social discrimination play a vital role in human smuggling.
Women especially do not want to live in camps as they face a lot of challenges to survive. They have no protection from family, community and host community. The majority of women have only two choices for survival: to marry for protection or to escape the camps.
A high official of police told The Daily Observer that trafficking of women and children from the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, is a severe, well-documented, and ongoing humanitarian crisis. It is a complex issue rooted in extreme vulnerability, desperation, and a lack of protection.
The UN and various NGOs (Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, IOM, etc.) have consistently reported on the alarming rates of trafficking from the camps. The victims are primarily: · Women and Adolescent Girls: Trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced domestic labour, and forced marriages (often as second or third wives, which can be a cover for domestic servitude and sexual slavery).
The Armed Police Battalion (APBn) is tasked with security in the camps. They have anti-trafficking units and occasionally conduct raids and make arrests. However, their capacity is limited. Efforts are made to patrol the long and porous border with Myanmar to prevent cross-border trafficking.
