Rohingya refugees

Floods Devastate Communities as Oxfam Scales Up Response

July 14, 2026

Over 1.1 million people across Bangladesh have been badly affected by floods due to waterlogging and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rainfall and upstream runoff since 4 July 2026. Chattogram has borne the heaviest impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods, while Cox’s Bazar, including the Rohingya refugee camps, continues to face flooding, landslide risks and damage to essential services.

“This is one emergency unfolding across two distinct contexts,” said Anil Pant, Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh. “The floods and their cascading impacts have severely disrupted people’s lives and livelihoods. In Chattogram and other affected districts, families have lost homes, income and access to safe drinking water and sanitation. In Cox’s Bazar, the danger is especially acute, as Rohingya families live in densely populated camps on fragile slopes, with limited space for safe relocation and heightened exposure to flooding and landslides.”

The floods have claimed dozens of lives, displaced thousands of people and damaged homes, roads, embankments, water points, latrines, cropland, fisheries and businesses. Many families have lost food stocks, bedding, cooking utensils and household assets. Thousands remain isolated in submerged communities, while some households cannot cook because they have neither dry space nor fuel.

As of today, the disaster has affected over 1.1 million people across 10 districts: Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulvibazar, and Habiganj, resulting in 53 fatalities and 39 injuries as of 14th July 2026. Safe drinking water, emergency food, shelter materials, hygiene and dignity kits, sanitation support and flexible cash assistance are among the most urgent needs. At least 3,500 water points and 12,400 latrines the damage to at least 3,500 water points and 12,400 latrines have heightened, heightening the threat of waterborne disease. Recovery will also require repairs to homes and WASH facilities and support to restore livelihoods.

“The water rose so quickly that we could save almost nothing. Our food, bedding and cooking utensils are gone, and finding clean water has become very difficult. We need food, safe drinking water and support to repair our home so that our family can start again,” said Akkas Ali, a flood-affected resident of Statkania, Chattogram.

In the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, 164 landslides and 42 flooding incidents have been reported. Fifteen Rohingya people lost their lives after shelters and facilities collapsed. A total of 9,707 people were displaced and temporarily relocated, while 482 weather-related incidents affected about 43,000 people across 9,463 households. Floodwater entered shelters and inundated WASH facilities, while prolonged cloudy weather left many households without lighting.

Women and girls, children, older people, individuals with disabilities, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and single-headed households face heightened protection and health risks. Limited relocation space, unstable slopes, damaged drainage and overcrowding are making the situation particularly dangerous and the vulnerabilities of the people living there reach the peak.

Oxfam in Bangladesh has initiated its emergency response and allocated BDT 12,065,000 (approximately BDT 12.07 million) to support the affected communities in Chattogram. Working through local partners, Oxfam is conducting rapid needs and gender assessments and coordinating with government authorities, the Needs Assessment Working Group, and UN clusters.

In Chattogram, Oxfam’s planned assistance includes emergency food, safe drinking water, hygiene & dignity kits containing soap, detergent, sanitary pads and oral rehydration salts, sari and lungi. and Multipurpose cash grants of BDT 8,000 per household are also planned so that vulnerable families can meet their urgent needs, including food, shelter repairs, healthcare, transport and livelihood inputs.

In Cox’s Bazar, Oxfam and partners are supporting assessments and repairing damaged facilities within operational areas. Oxfam has also provided personal protective equipment to 100 Rohingya volunteers serving as frontline responders.

“We are already on the ground with our partners, listening to affected communities and acting on their most urgent priorities,” Anil Pant said. “Our initial allocation is an important first step, but the scale of need is far greater. We call on donors, businesses, development partners and concerned citizens to provide flexible funding so that more families can receive life-saving assistance and rebuild with dignity.”

Oxfam aims to reach up to 160,000 people through a locally led, gender-responsive response focused on immediate relief, livelihood recovery and climate-resilient reconstruction with a funding aspiration of 3 million Euro.

Contact information:

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Rohingya Refugees: working for peace, longing for home

August 28, 2019

Two years on

There are close to a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh – more than 700,000 arrived following the violence of 25 August 2017. Some have been there since the 1990s. Overcrowding and poor infrastructure leaves people exposed to diseases, especially during monsoon season, and lack of legal status prevents refugees from working, studying, getting specialist medical help, or reporting crimes. Oxfam’s Senior Communications Officer in Cox’s Bazar, Mutasim Billah, explains that a ban on refugees working and the lack of education in the camps has left many refugees feeling as though they are treading water.

Two years is a long time for lives to be left on hold, and for many Rohingya this has been the case for even longer.

Though not without worries, some Rohingya refugees in the camps of Cox’s Bazar prefer sometimes to focus on the brighter side, to share examples of how they can help themselves and their communities. They were proud to tell us how they were managing, just getting on with life.

Neighbours in a crowded community

Down a crowded path between the camp shelters, Layla, 30, is a Rohingya woman who has become something of a local hero for coming up with a simple solution to an everyday problem in her neighbourhood. As it starts to rain, we huddle together by her front door in plastic chairs carried over by neighbours, under a cleverly woven awning made of palm fronds and empty rice sacks. I could have reached across the path with arms outstretched and touched both Layla’s front door and that of her opposite neighbour across the path.

Gesturing out the front door, my colleague pointed to the host community village at the end of the lane, not 10 meters from this dense grouping of camp shelters. Layla explained, “When we first arrived here, we did not have a good relationship with our neighbours from the host community. Every day there were quarrels! For us the biggest issue was water. We want water, the host community wants water. Everyone would just go to the taps with as many bottles as they could carry and collect as much as they could.”

Water is scarce – so how to keep the peace?

“I didn’t want to see the women quarreling at the taps, so I suggested a system. At our water tap, each Rohingya family can take two pitchers of water first. Then, the host community can come and take whatever they need. If there is a bit more water, the Rohingya can come take another pitcher. I fill the containers myself for the families to come and collect.

“I manage it this way to keep the peace in the community. Sometimes people come and thank me, and I feel good. We are managing here like this!

“Neither of us is perfect, but we are very thankful to the local people for letting us stay here. We can be respectful of each other’s values and culture while we are here.

“But if you ask us, we all say we want our citizenship, our nationality. We want to go home.”

The changing role for men

We also spoke to Kabir, who belongs to one of Oxfam’s men’s gender group which meet to talk about changing gender roles, gender-based violence and the specific challenges men face living in the camps and how to cope. Oxfam has 25 men’s groups serving about 500 men across seven camps.

Kabir told us, “There was so much we didn’t know. We learned about our responsibility to our society, our home, and our women. Women work very hard at home!

“Most of the time we forget to acknowledge that. When we were in our own country, no one ever told us to try to understand women’s contributions. Every home had conflicts. Now that we understand this, we don’t have conflict anymore – I don’t fight with my wife.”

Providing personal fulfilment

These men’s groups are not only critical for addressing long term challenges around transforming gender roles in the camps, they also give men like Kabir a place to vent frustrations and build confidence.

He says, “I only had one year of school, I am definitely not an educated person. In the group, I learned to write my name. It feels good writing your own name! Maybe as an educated person, you wouldn’t understand, but this is a really fulfilling experience for me.”

Longing for home

Refugees like Layla and Kabir work hard to find ways to cope, but in many ways, their lives are in limbo.

“Now we are safe. We got a lot of support from the people living in this village. They helped us when there was no one. They provided many things,” says Kabir with deep gratitude.

“But in the future, I just want to go home. The camp is not a good place to live for your whole life. Here we are living on support. Mentally no one is happy as all of us want to go back. But for that, we need our nationality. It is our security. Without having that, we cannot go back.”

Oxfam is providing vital aid including clean water and food to Rohingya refugees. So far, we’ve helped more than a quarter of a million (266,000) people in Bangladesh and we provide ongoing humanitarian assistance to 100,000 Rohingya and Kaman Muslims confined to camps in Myanmar.

Oxfam warns of flood risk to Rohingya refugees as further monsoon rain forecast

July 12, 2019

Oxfam is warning that thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are in danger after almost a month’s worth of rain fell in just a week.

Cox’s Bazar is home to the world’s largest refugee camp where more than 900,000 refugees live in fragile homes built from bamboo and tarpaulin.

Elizabeth Hallinan, Oxfam’s advocacy manager in Cox’s Bazar, said: “Days of heavy rain and landslides have left homes teetering precariously on the brink of steep ravines. Roads have turned into rivers and streams run down the steep hillsides between people’s houses.

“Oxfam is rushing to reinforce and repair vital infrastructures like toilets and handpumps. Our teams of Rohingya volunteers are ensuring that the most vulnerable refugees who have been forced from their flooded homes have basic household items and are in touch with the camp authorities.”

Safwatul Haque Niloy, Oxfam’s head of public health, said: “The mega-camp is built on hilly terrain and sandy soil that cannot withstand days of heavy rain. Low-lying areas are completely waterlogged and the ground has been churned up.

“People are worried that their homes will collapse. Our immediate concern is for children, pregnant women, older people and those with disabilities who will struggle to leave their homes in these dangerous conditions.

“We have also started monitoring for outbreaks of diarrheal disease which is a risk when there is contaminated water caused by flooding.”

Notes:

According to the IOM, more than 45,000 people have been affected by weather-related incidents since the end of April, and 5,600 people have been displaced.

Bangladesh is near the beginning of monsoon season, which will last until September. Weather monitoring stations in Cox’s Bazar registered 700mm of rain in the week to Monday 8 July. Average rainfall for July in Chittagong, the province in which Cox’s Bazar is located, is 733mm.

Oxfam and its partners are providing vital aid including clean water and food to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. So far, we’ve helped more than 266,000 people. You can donate to Oxfam’s Rohingya Crisis appeal here.