The humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya people

– on invitation only –

This month, it has been eight years since the Burmese military launched a full-scale military attack on the Rohingya people. Over 700,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. In Rakhine state, the Arakan Army has faced increasing accusations that it is abusing, targeting, and disenfranchising the Rohingya. Humanitarian access is largely blocked. While the World Food Program reports alarming levels of food insecurity in Central Rakhine, they say the situation in Northern Rakhine, where the majority of Rohingya live, is expected to be even worse due to conflict and access issues. In Bangladesh, conditions in refugee camps such as Cox’s Bazar have worsened due to severe funding cuts, including reductions from USAID. 

Currently, several important international meetings are held: at the end of August, a three-day conference in Bangladesh was organised by the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and brought together global stakeholders to find solutions to the long-running Rohingya crisis. At this conference, the Bangladeshi government urged the international community to draft a roadmap for the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya people. There will be a high-level conference in New York on 30 September, and another UN meeting is scheduled for December in Doha.  

Against this backdrop, there is a critical window of opportunity to organise a roundtable discussion, bringing together humanitarian practitioners, policymakers, and academics. The objective of this meeting is to share knowledge and information about the most pressing challenges in humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya people.  

This meeting focuses specifically on the plight of the Rohingya people, whilst KUNO and participants acknowledge that increased attention is also needed for other ethnic groups in Myanmar living in dire humanitarian conditions.  

• The current discussions about the repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar, and the pressing concerns that conditions for a safe, sustainable, and dignified return for the Rohingya are not currently in place.
• The humanitarian needs of the Rohingya in Bangladesh:
  • Immediate and long-term measures to address the humanitarian situation of Rohingya refugees
  • How to improve the conditions in Cox’s Bazar for the Rohingya in terms of livelihood.
• Addressing the humanitarian crisis and protection concerns in Rakhine State, including the catastrophic food security crisis.
  • What can be done to facilitate cross-border assistance.
  • Strategies to strengthen and resource local actors and community-led initiatives.

• Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), will kick off this meeting by sharing insights from the report “Starving to death: the latest phase of the Rohingya genocide” (June 2025), and elaborating on the humanitarian situation in Bangladesh and Myanmar.   

After the introduction, the floor is opened for the discussion.

* Picture: In June 2025, Rohingya photojournalist Zia Sahat Hero and MSF Australia photographer Victor Caringal produced a series of photographs to show how the Rohingya have adapted to daily life in the Kutapalong refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.

NGO workers and foreign visitors typically travel to the camps via arterial roads. But deep inside the camps, the throughways become much tighter, and Zia explained that many parts are only accessible on foot. When a medical need arises, people need to be carried to the nearest hospital, a difficult journey which can take hours away in monsoonal conditions.