Bangladesh runs out of resources for Rohingya refugees

25/8/2025 17:56

Bangladesh has no scope to allocate more resources for its 1.3 million Rohingya refugees, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said on Monday, urging the international community to find a sustainable solution to the crisis.



Children make up half the 1.3 million Rohingya refugees now living in Bangladesh, most of whom fled a brutal 2017 military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar that U.N. investigators called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".



Hosting the refugees has put a huge strain on Bangladesh, in areas from its economy and environment to governance, said Nobel peace laureate Yunus, the South Asian nation's de-facto prime minister.



"We don't foresee any scope whatsoever for further mobilisation of resources from domestic sources, given our numerous challenges," Yunus said in a speech.



He called for the international community to draft a practical roadmap for their return home.



"The Rohingya issue and its sustainable resolution must be kept alive on the global agenda, as they need our support until they return home."



Yunus' comments marked the eighth anniversary since more than 700,000 Rohingya arrived within a matter of days, turning the area around the southeastern coastal town of Cox's Bazar into the world's largest refugee settlement.