Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Eight years since they were forced to flee their homes in Myanmar, more than one million Rohingya refugees remain in the camps of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. An additional 37,088 people have relocated to nearby Bhasan Char Island. More than half of the displaced are women and girls, living in precarious conditions that leave them entirely reliant on humanitarian assistance.

Most refugees reside in overcrowded, temporary shelters that offer little privacy and are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate shocks – including cyclones, fires and landslides – and the challenges of a protracted crisis. Shrinking humanitarian funding has stretched basic services to their limits, while rising insecurity within the camps restricts mobility and exposes women and children to heightened risks of violence.

UNFPA, in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh, provides sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls in the camps and host communities. This includes deploying and training midwives and maternal health specialists, as well as mobilizing community health workers to raise awareness about available services and to promote voluntary family planning. UNFPA also supports multiple health facilities, including the Friendship Hospital in the Ukhiya subdistrict, which delivers emergency obstetric care for both refugees and host communities, and provides more than 90 percent of reproductive health supplies across the response.

Reproductive health and gender-based violence services are available through 55 UNFPA-supported Women Friendly Spaces across the camps. These safe spaces provide comprehensive medical care and psychosocial support for survivors of violence as well as referrals to specialized services. Ten Women-Led Community Centres and a Multipurpose Centre support psychosocial well-being and skills-development programmes for women, girls, men and boys. UNFPA also supports eight youth spaces in the camps and in host communities, where adolescents and young people can access life-skills education, vocational training and awareness sessions on health, gender-based violence and rights. 

In 2024, UNFPA reached more than 1 million people with reproductive health and protection services.

Updated 28 July 2025