Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in camps across Bangladesh marked the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus from Myanmar on Monday, demanding safe return to their ancestral homes in Rakhine State.
Gatherings were held in Kutupalong, the largest of more than 30 Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. Refugees carried banners reading “No more refugee life” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution” as they observed the day as Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.
The anniversary coincided with the opening of a three-day international conference in Cox’s Bazar. Attended by United Nations representatives, diplomats, international dignitaries, and Bangladesh’s interim government, the discussions are focused on sustaining humanitarian support for over one million Rohingya refugees and accelerating the repatriation process.
Chief Adviser and Nobel Peace laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who is set to address the conference, has already stressed that the Rohingya crisis was created in Myanmar and its solution must also come from there. He urged the global community to halt the ethnic cleansing campaign led by the Myanmar junta and armed groups in Rakhine.
For many refugees, the day was not only a remembrance of loss but also a declaration of their aspiration to return. “We are here today because the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army committed genocide against our community,” said Nur Aziz, a 19-year-old refugee in Kutupalong. “We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar.”
The exodus began on August 25, 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched a brutal crackdown following insurgent attacks on police outposts in Rakhine. What followed was mass displacement, shelling, and killings that forced over 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to cross into Bangladesh. Combined with earlier influxes, the Rohingya population in Bangladesh now exceeds 1.3 million.
Despite repeated efforts by Bangladesh—under both the Sheikh Hasina administration and the current interim government led by Dr. Yunus—repatriation attempts have stalled amid escalating violence in Rakhine. The rise of the Arakan Army, which now controls large parts of the region, has further complicated the possibility of return.
The Cox’s Bazar conference will feed into the United Nations high-level meeting on the Rohingya crisis, scheduled for September 30 in New York, where the plight of the Rohingya and other persecuted communities of Myanmar is expected to be highlighted before representatives of nearly 170 countries.
