GNV News 2025 year6 month1 day

2025 year5 month, The New Humanitarian published an investigative report which says that in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh, multiple refugee women and aid workers have testified that coerced contraception is taking place, including intrauterine device (IUD) insertion and the administration of contraceptive pills. It also reports cases in which women were pressured that they could not register newborns unless they agreed to contraception; without refugee registration, they cannot receive food distributions or other humanitarian services, leaving women effectively facing forced contraception. The United Nations has urged the Bangladeshi government to stop conditioning birth registration on contraception and to ensure that family planning is voluntary, but the government denies involvement.

In the background are the growing population of Rohingya refugees and the reduction of international aid. The Rohingya, a minority group composed mainly of Muslims, 1978 year they began fleeing to Bangladesh under persecution by Ne Win’s military regime, but2017 year, following the violent crackdown by the Myanmar military, the number surged,700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh.2018 year, about 850,000 refugees2025 year, nearly 1100,000 in total, an increase driven by higher birth rates and 2021 year and by the influx of new refugees forced to flee fighting in the armed conflict that engulfed Myanmar after the military coup. Many of them want to return, but without guarantees of rights and citizenship, returning to Myanmar is difficult.

In the refugee camps, not only are they facing the growing needs of the refugee population, but they are also affected by international aid cuts, and they are confronting severe funding shortfalls. Not only are there food shortages as a result, but sexual violence and human trafficking are also rampant in this situation, and responses to the mounting challenges in the refugee camps are urgently needed.

Learn more about the Rohingya → “The Rohingya crisis: the chain of persecution and displacement“

Learn more about refugees in Southeast Asia → “The situation of refugees in Southeast Asia“

(Photo: Bangladesh: Scene near the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar / Chiori Murata)