Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Nine years after they were forced to flee their homes in Myanmar, some 1.2 million Rohingya refugees remain in the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district and nearby Bhasan Char Island. 

Most are living in overcrowded shelters that offer little privacy or sanitation and are highly exposed to the impacts of climate shocks. Women and girls are especially vulnerable, as insecurity within the camps exposes them to heightened risks of gender-based violence, while a lack of health services means there is scarce assistance for pregnancy and childbirth complications. Child marriage, with its spiraling consequences of underage pregnancy and gender-based violence risks, continues across the camps.

UNFPA works in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and humanitarian partners to ensure that women, girls and young people in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char can access the sexual and reproductive health, protection and psychosocial support services that are essential to their health, safety and dignity.

Despite shrinking humanitarian funding that has stretched basic services to their limits, UNFPA is providing life-saving, midwifery-led sexual and reproductive health services and maternal and newborn care across 28 health facilities in the camps and host communities. In addition, UNFPA offers gender-based violence prevention, mitigation and response services for women and girls through a network of 65 facilities, providing survivors with case management, psychosocial support, clinical care, legal assistance and referrals.

In addition, targeted initiatives to address the needs of adolescents and young people – one in three people in the camps is an adolescent or young person – include child marriage prevention through life-skills training, as well as mental health support and access to crucial information and services. 

Updated 3 August 2026