A Decade of Displacement and the Shadow of Neglect
Nearly a decade after the mass displacement of Rohingya from Myanmar, more than one million refugees remain in Bangladesh, most of them living in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar. They arrived after years of persecution, with the largest exodus occurring during the Myanmar military’s 2017 crackdown. Today, what was once treated as an urgent international emergency has become a prolonged crisis.
The problem is not only that the Rohingya remain displaced. It is that international attention and humanitarian funding are increasingly under pressure while the needs of the refugees remain enormous. In June 2026, the UN refugee agency warned that declining humanitarian funding could significantly worsen conditions for around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The question is no longer simply how to support the Rohingya. It is whether the world can afford to ignore a crisis that is increasingly becoming a regional problem.
The Hidden Cost of Funding Cuts
Humanitarian funding may sound like a financial issue, but inside the refugee camps it quickly becomes a human one.
When funding falls, food assistance, healthcare, education, sanitation and protection services come under pressure. The consequences can be particularly serious for children and women.
Recent reporting has shown how aid cuts have already affected essential services in the camps. In 2025, Reuters reported that disruptions to healthcare services affected hundreds of thousands of refugees, while funding shortages raised concerns about food assistance and other basic services.
The danger goes beyond hunger. When education and protection programmes disappear, children become more vulnerable to child marriage, trafficking, exploitation and recruitment by criminal or armed groups. An Associated Press investigation found that aid cuts were associated with school closures and increased risks for Rohingya children, including trafficking, forced labour and child marriage.
This is why humanitarian funding should not be viewed simply as charity. In a crisis of this size, humanitarian assistance is also an investment in regional stability.
Myanmar Is Still Not Ready for Safe Return
At the same time, the situation inside Myanmar remains deeply unstable.
The conflict in Rakhine State continues, while the Myanmar military and armed groups are fighting for control. A recent UN investigation reported continued war crimes and serious abuses across Myanmar, including attacks on civilians and displaced people.
This makes large-scale and safe Rohingya repatriation extremely difficult.
Returning refugees is often presented as the ultimate solution. But return cannot be sustainable unless there are credible guarantees of safety, citizenship or legal rights, freedom of movement and access to basic services.
Even Myanmar’s military-backed government recently said that repatriation would depend on security conditions improving in Rakhine State.
Until those conditions exist, forcing or pressuring refugees to return would risk creating another humanitarian disaster rather than solving the existing one.
Bangladesh Is Carrying a Global Responsibility
The international community therefore has a responsibility to recognise that Bangladesh is not dealing with a problem of its own making.
If international funding continues to decline, the burden will increasingly fall on Bangladesh and on the refugees themselves.
That is an unfair outcome.
The Rohingya crisis began with persecution and displacement in Myanmar, but its consequences now extend across borders. Bangladesh has provided shelter, while international organisations and donor countries have provided humanitarian support. If one part of that system weakens, the consequences can spread throughout the region.
From Humanitarian Crisis to Regional Security Risk
The most worrying sign is the growing number of Rohingya taking dangerous routes by sea.
When refugees see little future in the camps and cannot safely return to Myanmar, some become vulnerable to traffickers who promise them a better life elsewhere.
This is no longer a hypothetical threat.
Reuters reported that nearly 900 Rohingya were reported dead or missing in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal during 2025, making it the deadliest year on record for Rohingya sea crossings. More than 6,500 attempted the journeys that year.
The consequences are regional. Dangerous maritime journeys connect Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. Human trafficking networks can exploit desperate refugees, while governments across the region face increasing pressure to respond.
In other words, a humanitarian funding crisis can eventually become a migration, trafficking and security crisis.
The World Cannot Treat the Rohingya Crisis as Permanent
The Rohingya crisis has lasted so long that there is a danger of normalising it.
But a crisis does not become less urgent simply because it becomes older.
The international community needs to maintain humanitarian funding while also investing in long-term solutions. That means supporting food security, healthcare, education and protection in Bangladesh, while increasing diplomatic pressure for a safe and dignified political solution in Myanmar.
International accountability must also remain part of the response. The Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar remains before the International Court of Justice, with the Court’s proceedings addressing allegations under the Genocide Convention.
International Court of JusticeBut legal accountability alone will not feed a child, protect a refugee from trafficking or rebuild a school.
The international community needs both humanitarian action and political action.
A Regional Responsibility, Not Just Bangladesh’s Problem
The Rohingya crisis should no longer be viewed only as a refugee issue inside Bangladesh. It is a regional challenge involving Myanmar, Bangladesh and the wider South and Southeast Asian region.
The solution requires sustained international funding, stronger regional cooperation against trafficking, safer maritime responses and serious diplomatic efforts to create conditions for voluntary, safe and dignified return.
Most importantly, the world must resist the temptation to allow funding fatigue to become political fatigue.
The Rohingya have already spent nearly a decade waiting for a solution. If humanitarian support continues to decline while conflict in Myanmar persists, the cost will not disappear it will simply move from refugee camps into the wider region.
The real question is therefore not whether the world can continue funding the Rohingya crisis.
It is whether the world can afford the consequences of not doing so.
