Bangladesh

Fire broke out at a container facility on the night of 4 June 2022 at Sonaichari union, Sitakunda upazila, 40km from the port city of Chattogram (formerly Chittagong). The fire triggered multiple explosions, killing at least 41 people, including 12 firefighters, and injuring at least 300 others.

Based on the location of the accident and the potential spread of fumes up to a radius of 10km, the fire likely affected Bhatiari, Kumira, and Sonaichari unions, with the latter being the most affected. The number of affected people could reach 145,000. 

This report provides an overview of the potential implications of the suspension of birth registration in Cox’s Bazar district from 2017–2020. It outlines the birth registration process, the procedural changes made since 2020, and what these changes mean for host community children and adults in Cox’s Bazar. The three-year suspension has reportedly negatively affected social cohesion between the host and refugee communities. Some members of the host community have used local news outlets and social media platforms to air their grievances about the impact of hosting the refugee population. This report is intended to support programming in the host community.

This report by ACAPS and IOM's Communicating with Communities unit is a large qualitative study exploring how Rohingya refugees have experienced the humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar, with a focus on accountability within the response. This report explores recurrent themes within the response, such as the treatment of Rohingya refugees by humanitarian staff, the inclusion of the Rohingya in decision-making processes, and complaints and feedback mechanisms. The report concludes with recommendations from the participants for different sectors within the response.

Access a summary of this report here.

The audio discussion below is a deeper dive into the methodology behind the report, with members from both teams discussing the research methodology and analysis process. 

The report and audio discussion - the first in a series of pilot audio discussions on work done by the ACAPS-NPM Analysis Hub in Cox's Bazar - highlights the common household characteristics of vulnerability, with the aim of identifying the specific needs and support requirements of the most vulnerable. These characteristics are identified through an analysis of the major assessments conducted in the last 12 months which investigated household vulnerability and the three household types identified were commonly found to be most vulnerable in all the major assessments reviewed.

This edition of the COVID-19 Explained report delves into the lived experiences of Rohingya refugees in the camps, providing more detailed accounts of the problems they are currently facing. This edition highlights the very real secondary impacts resulting from the combined COVID-19 containment measures and the advent of the monsoon. This edition also briefly compares current issues and concerns with those reported in April 2020, in COVID-19 Explained Edition 5, to assess whether there have been any major changes.

The prevalence and impact of COVID-19 in the camps today remains unclear and different sources of information paint different and conflicting pictures of the situation. 

This edition of COVID-19 Explained explores these reports to better understand how the Rohingya understand their experiences. It is both an exploration of what it could mean if the reports are true and what it means that the reports are believed to be true. The emphasis is on experiential understanding – people’s lived experiences – rather than scientifically verifiable data through a method such as testing. The testimonies are from researchers, their relatives, community leaders, and key contacts in the camps. Whether or not the illness is COVID-19, the exercise unveiled issues within the current response that discourage the Rohingya from seeking testing and treatment for COVID-19 symptoms and explains these fears.

On 14 May UNHCR confirmed one Rohingya refugee living in the Kutupalong-Balukhali expansion site had tested positive for COVID-19. As of the date of publication, there are 27 confirmed cases (22% female/78% male) in 9 camps, and a total of 637 (27% female/73% male) cases in Cox’s Bazar district. As the number of confirmed cases rise among the estimated 860,000 Rohingya refugees residing in 34 overcrowded, makeshift camps, humanitarian agencies are likely to face increasing challenges in responding to critical needs. Strict measures have been introduced in an attempt to break the chain of transmission and slow the spread of COVID-19, including a drastic decrease in humanitarian presence in the camps, the suspension of programmes not considered lifesaving, and changes to the ways in which programmes are being delivered in order to maintain physical distancing and adhere to strict hygiene protocols. This analysis will examine how these changes are impacting humanitarian’s ability to deliver gender responsive and gender sensitive programming in order to inform humanitarian responders and enable them to consider strategies to mitigate any risks arising.

This report follows on from the findings of past COVID-19 Explained Editions and Health Behaviours and COVID-19. For this edition, 56 key informants were requested to provide detailed accounts of their recent experiences of medical consultations and treatments. These experiences were analysed and their findings presented here according to the same qualitative data analysis methods and standards as other COVID-19 Explained editions. Additionally, six illustrated story boards were developed from the interviews and developed separately as an illustrated companion report. It is the hoped that in response to the question “what do these stories mean,” we can find answers by diving deeper into the singular stories and experiences of the people we serve.

See the illustrated version of this report

This edition of COVID-19 Explained explores the differences in attitudes, knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 between key demographic groups. This data was gathered several weeks after the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 awareness campaigns. For this edition, 42 interviews with women, girls, boys and men from Rohingya and host communities were conducted, including 9 interviews with people with disabilities, to gain a better understanding of how these dimensions result in different experience and impacts related to COVID-19 preparedness. It is hoped that this will help support nuanced communication strategies and programmatic consideration of affected populations’ ages, genders, population groups and abilities. Based on this consultation, it is clear that everyone has been impacted significantly in different ways that will continue to come into focus as the response protracts.

Between the 30th of March and 3rd April 2020, 17 consultations were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding on how religious beliefs are influencing Rohingya’s understanding of COVID-19, particularly how they are impacting people’s behaviour and perception towards key COVID-19 prevention messaging. This one-page document presents a summary of the first half of Edition 4 of COVID-19 Explained to support the development of risk communication and community engagement strategies for COVID-19 prevention measures.

This series of reports is based on focus group discussions and Key Informant Interviews with Rohingya living across Ukhia and Teknaf Camps. The objective of these consultations is to ensure Rohingya’s voices are included in all stages of the COVID-19 response and provide an avenue for Rohingya refugees to express their questions and concerns. COVID-19 Explained aims to provide decision makers with an understanding of the current perceptions, understanding and information being circulated about COVID-19 among Rohingya within the camps and inform programming decisions that are being made in preparation for a potential COVID-19 outbreak. These consultations will also feed into messaging and outreach strategies designed and implemented by IOM and other humanitarian response agencies.

The 855,000 Rohingya Refugees currently residing in 34 makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to COVID-19. Lessons learned from previous epidemic responses, such as the response to Ebola across affected African countries, highlight the critical role perceptions have on health seeking behaviour, trust in humanitarian responders and the willingness of affected communities to comply with public health measures.

Among the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, distrust and lack of confidence in the medical system of the response is widespread. The implications of this on the effectiveness of any COVID-19 response cannot be overstated or ignored. The perception that the Rohingya have of the health system in the camps is their reality and is highly informed by their culture, history, and their understanding of sickness and health. Therefore, if the perceptions and opinions of Rohingya on healthcare are not taken properly into account and if community awareness and engagement are not prioritized as a key pillar of the COVID-19 response, lessons indicate that the capacity of response actors to control the outbreak will be severely hindered.

The purpose of this thematic report on health behaviours is to support humanitarian responders in understanding the current perceptions of healthcare, the impact of these perceptions on health seeking behaviour and the direct implications these perceptions and behaviours have on the ability to respond to, and control, a COVID-19 outbreak in the Rohingya refugee camps.

This series of reports is based on focus group discussions and Key Informant Interviews with Rohingya living across Ukhia and Teknaf Camps. The objective of these consultations is to ensure Rohingya’s voices are included in all stages of the COVID-19 response and provide an avenue for Rohingya refugees to express their questions and concerns. COVID-19 Explained aims to provide decision makers with an understanding of the current perceptions, understanding and information being circulated about COVID-19 among Rohingya within the camps and inform programming decisions that are being made in preparation for a potential COVID-19 outbreak. These consultations will also feed into messaging and outreach strategies designed and implemented by IOM and other humanitarian response agencies.

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh has been a place of refuge for Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar on numerous occasions since 1978. August 2017 saw the beginning of the largest and most rapid influx of Rohingya refugees, over 730,000 Rohingya, including 400,000 children, fled across the border in response to a genocide.

They joined an estimated 300,000 Rohingya who had already fled violence in previous years, creating the world’s largest refugee camps. As of October 2019, there are 914,998 refugees living in 34 sites in Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar. Of those, 55 to 60% are children, 4% of households are headed by a child, and there is an estimated 11% of people with disabilities. 

This document collates and analyses publicly available secondary information focusing on children and youth since the influx of Rohingya Refugees at the latter end of 2017 favouring the most recent reports. Over 35 documents and assessments have been reviewed and data from the MSNA and the NPM where relevant have also been included. Technical advisors from Save the Children reviewed the document and contributed to the identification of information gaps.

The aim of the document is to give an overview of children’s needs both inside and outside the camps and identify child related information gaps. The desk review will then be used as a basis to guide the design and methodology of the primary data collection of a children’s consultation led by Save the Children.

ACAPS Humanitarian Access Overview provides a snapshot of the contexts where humanitarian action faces the biggest constraints. Our analysts have scored each context on nine variables in order to rank and compare humanitarian access worldwide. Crisis affected populations in about 60 countries are not getting the humanitarian assistance they need due to access constraints. Eight new countries were included in the ranking since the last ACAPS HumanitarianAccess report released in May 2019. Among the indicators, ‘Physical constraints’ and ‘Restrictions and obstruction to services and assistance’ are the most common challenges. This report presents the score boards for all the countries assessed. Narratives are provided only for countries with high, very high, or extreme constraints.

This report reflects on lessons that can be learned from needs assessments in the context of the Rohingya crisis. It is based on reviews of assessments in Cox’s Bazar since 2017 and conversations with key assessment stakeholders in the Rohingya response, grounded in global experience and assessment practice. It suggests a series of key recommendations and considerations covering all stages of the assessment process, with the goal to improve future assessments and data quality. It covers assessments targeting Rohingya refugees as well as the Bangladeshi host community.

The report begins by emphasizing the need for coordination and analysis and discusses implications and limitations of different data collection methods. In the next section, it highlights linguistic challenges, showing how they can impact data quality and assessment results. This is followed by a discussion of age, gender, and diversity considerations in the context of needs assessments and operational constraints. The next section discusses enumerator selection and training, followed by suggestions on communicating assessment results back to affected communities. After a series of key literature recommendations, the report closes by showcasing, in a Spotlight, the differences between two major datasets.

The Global risk analysis outlines 18 contexts where a significant deterioration is expected to occur within the next six to nine months, leading to a spike in humanitarian needs. This report comes as a result of ACAPS daily monitoring and independent analysis of the globe to support evidence-based decision-making in the humanitarian sector.

Considering the diversity and complexity of the crises, combined with the number of contexts included in the report, it has not been possible to cover each crisis in detail. Instead, we have highlighted the broad evolution of the crises to flag potential deteriorations and inform operational, strategic, and policy decision-makers.

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The traffic lights diagram above is based on the result of multisectoral priortrisation tool developed by Analysis Hub. The tool uses NPM site assessments Round 12 data from five sectors to priortise needs geographically, at majhee block level. The 32 indicators are selected from the sectors to build up composite index; combine to present basic need gap index at majhee block level. Each indicators are evaluated for their inclusion in the priortrisation tool and selected according to the amount of variation that each indicator revealed. The Bette Verma method is used to calculate the weight of each indicator and multiple deprivation tool is used to calculate the index in STATA. Additional explanation can be found in Rohingya Influx Overview. Camps and sites are tool large and diverse to be effective planning devices. The analysis for basic need gap was done at majhee block level because the majority of differences and variations in needs are between majhee blocks; and camp level analysis can hide the pockets of high need area. To illustrate this, each gap in above diagram is presented at majhee block level. 

The traffic lights diagram above is based on the results of a multi-sector prioritisation tool developed by the Analysis Hub. The took uses NPM data from five sectors to prioritise needs geographically, at the block level. The 30 indicators which form the prioritisation tool have been weighted and combined into the Basic Needs Gap – it and its component sector gaps, are included in the excel workbook accompanying this one-pager. Indicators were evaluated for their inclusion in the prioritisation tool and selected according to the amount of variation that each indicator revealed. Additional explanation may be found in the Rohingya Influx Overview; and the methodology behind the tool can be found in the technical brief Building a Prioritization Index with NPM Round 9.

This report covers changes and key issues recorded in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh between July and September/October. It includes a review of secondary data, as well as the results of a multi-sector prioritisation tool developed by the Analysis Hub: the Basic Needs Gap Index. This index is based on NPM Round 12 data and covers gaps in shelter and NFIs, food, health, sanitation and water supply, and is meant to illustrate the severity of need across camps and blocks in the Rohingya settlements.

Heavy rainfall recorded in northeastern Bangladesh since 12 June exacerbated by a sudden increase of river water levels due to upstream flooding in India resulted in severe flooding in Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts. Flooding affected the majority of upazilas in both districts, leading to severe infrastructure damage and acute needs. Over 2,000,000 people live in the most affected upazilas. At least 250,000 of them have been affected, and over 12,000 reside in temporary shelters in Moulvibazar. An estimated 570,000 people have also been affected in Sylhet.

The following lessons have been drawn from the impact of cyclones in Bangladesh and specifically Cox’s Bazar district. Other literature reviewed includes lessons from cyclones in Myanmar. These are considered relevant for the current Rohingya crisis. 
 

This note summarizes a longer document on the potential impact of pre-monsoon and monsoon rains in the Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar. It has drawn on the past impact of rains in the Rohingya settlements and in Cox’s Bazar and Bangladesh more generally. The Rohingya camps at this scale have never existed in this season before so there is no direct past experience of how they have withstood a monsoon in Bangladesh. The number of people in the settlements and the nature of the temporary living conditions and facilities all indicate that the impact of a normal rainy season will make the provision of on-going response to the influx challenging. A severe monsoon will have a serious impact on needs.

Disclaimer: This note is based on a subjective assessment of the potential impact of the monsoon on camps and is considered a worst-case scenario.

Access a longer version of this report

Our methodology uses 9 indicators grouped in 3 categories:
-    Access of humanitarian actors to affected population
-    Access of people in need to humanitarian aid
-    Security and physical constraints
Each category is measured through proxy indicators, such as violence against personnel, denial of needs, or active hostilities.
Data is collected at the country level and may therefore not show disparities between sub-regions.

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As of 6 December, 110 clinically diagnosed cases of diphtheria, including six deaths have been reported, with most cases in the Balukhali makeshift settlement (BMS), located in the larger Kutupalong–Balukhali expansion site. Other cases have been detected in Jamtoli and Thangkhali settlements. Low vaccination coverage amongst the camp population increases their vulnerability to the disease, which is particularly deadly for children. Congestion in sites, unevenly distributed health facilities and poor WASH infrastructure facilitate the spread of the disease, particularly during winter. An emergency vaccination campaign targeting 250,000 children is to begin on December 10. Difficult terrain and lack of access to some areas in expansion sites are likely to hamper health services provision. Awareness raising will be important to ensure as many children as possible access immunisations.

As of 21 November, an estimated 622,000 Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar to Bangladesh. The influx began on 25 August, after the Myanmar Army launched security operations in northern Rakhine state. In September, an average of approximately 14,500 people arrived daily. This dropped to an approximate average of 3,100 arrivals per day in October. The estimated number of people in need was 1.2 million in the latest Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) of October 2017. This number was comprised of the pre-existing caseload of Rohingya in Bangladesh (government estimates of 300,000), the new influx since 25 August (at 509,000 on 3 October), people in host communities (300,000), and a contingency for a further 91,000 people. 

As of 22 September, an estimated 429,000 Rohingya people have arrived in Bangladesh since 25 August (IOM 22/09/2017). Rohingya started fleeing northern Rakhine, Myanmar as the Myanmar Army is carrying out crackdown operations in the area. Operations, which have killed at least 400 people, started after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out attacks against police- and border posts (Thomson Reuters Foundation 03/09/2017). The Myanmar Army has been accused of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, burning of shelters, and arbitrary arrests of the minority Rohingya population. Rohingya people are entering Bangladesh at six points across the Naikonchari border: Gundum, Tombru, Jolpaitoli, Reju Aamtali, Baishpari, and Kolabagan (The Daily Star 29/08/2017). An unknown number could still be stranded at the border. 

Our methodology uses 9 indicators grouped in 3 categories:
-    Access of humanitarian actors to affected population
-    Access of people in need to humanitarian aid
-    Security and physical constraints
Each category is measured through proxy indicators, such as violence against personnel, denial of needs, or active hostilities.
Data is collected at the country level and may therefore not show disparities between sub-regions.

Cyclone Mora made landfall near Kutubdia upazila, Cox’s Bazar district, southeast Bangladesh on 30 May. As of 31 May, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department has lowered the danger signal related to the cyclone from 10 to 3, as the storm weakened. Initial assessments estimate that over 280,000 people have been affected. The impact Initial assessments estimate that over 280,000 people have been affected. The impact Chittagong. Vulnerable settlements where refugees and undocumented migrants and refugees, many of whom are Rohingya, reside in Cox’s Bazar have been hit particularly hard. Over 475,000 were evacuated to cyclone shelters before the storm made landfall and people have started to return home.