Nine Years of Exile

Nine years have passed since more than 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after the military crackdown of August 25, 2017, leaving behind burning homes, dead relatives and a homeland from which they were violently uprooted. Bangladesh opened its border on humanitarian grounds, and Cox’s Bazar became a vast refuge for a people carrying little more than memories.

Today, more than 1.2 million registered Rohingya live in Bangladesh, including 626,477 children. More than 450,000 are under 11, meaning over a third of this population has little or no memory of Myanmar. Since 2024, another 150,000 have crossed into Bangladesh amid renewed fighting in Rakhine, while around 30,000 children are born in the camps every year.

Nine years of promises have brought no repatriation. Myanmar continues to deny the Rohingya identity, calling them “Bengali” migrants. By July 31, 2026, Myanmar said it had verified only 308,797 of 828,824 names submitted by Bangladesh, a figure Dhaka disputes as inconsistent with UN registration data.

Meanwhile, life inside the camps grows harsher. Aid is shrinking, insecurity is rising and desperate journeys across the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea are claiming lives. UNHCR says that in 2025, one in every seven people travelling this trafficking route was killed or went missing.

For the Rohingya, repatriation is not merely a diplomatic arrangement. It is the right to return home with dignity, security and citizenship, to reclaim a life interrupted by violence. Their childhoods are already disappearing behind bamboo walls. Their future should not.