The Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazar has surged by nearly 179,000 over the past year, driven by a combination of new arrivals fleeing Myanmar and a steady rise in births within the camps, according to the latest data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
A report released on Monday by UNHCR indicates that the total number of Rohingya refugees in the district reached 1,184,864 as of February 28, marking a significant increase from 1,006,107 recorded during the same period last year. The figures represent an overall rise of 178,757 individuals.
Officials attribute the increase to both ongoing displacement from Myanmar and natural population growth within the camps.
Md Kamruzzaman, head of the Myanmar wing at Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, stated that the rise reflects a dual trend of continued influx and high birth rates.
“Approximately 30,000 to 35,000 children are born annually in the Rohingya camps,” he said, adding that new arrivals continue to enter the settlements at different times throughout the year. Both newly arrived individuals and newborns are incorporated into the databases maintained by UNHCR and the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC).
According to the UNHCR report, 144,456 individuals in the past year were categorized as “new arrivals,” while 34,301 were attributed to births within the camps.
The report further highlights that renewed displacement in 2024 was triggered by both generalized violence and targeted attacks in Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State.
Although new arrivals have undergone biometric identification, they are not yet fully registered as refugees. UNHCR noted that, to ensure access to life-saving assistance, these individuals are currently issued family cards rather than full registration status.
The data also shows a notable increase in the number of refugee households. As of February 28, the total number of Rohingya families in Bangladesh stood at 246,415, up from 204,303 a year earlier—an increase of 41,912 households.
Historical UNHCR records indicate that the registered Rohingya population in Bangladesh remained limited to around 39,502 individuals from the 1990s until the large-scale military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017. That operation triggered a mass exodus, forcing more than one million Rohingya to flee into Bangladesh in successive waves.
