In the past 11 months, another 136,000 Rohingya have taken refuge in Bangladesh. They entered the country between December 2024 and October 2025, according to a monthly report released on Wednesday (November 12) by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The report said the number stood at 133,651 at the end of September, meaning an additional 2,989 Rohingya were registered in the following month. As of October 31, the total number of registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh had reached 1,168,398.

UNHCR stated that since 2024, thousands of people have been killed in Myanmar’s Rakhine State amid escalating violence and persecution, prompting more Rohingya to seek safety in Bangladesh.

The report noted that as conflict in Rakhine has intensified since early 2024, new refugees have continued to cross into Bangladesh in search of safety. By the end of 2024, the number of new arrivals in the camps had noticeably increased. Their biometric registration is currently underway. Among the new refugees, 78 percent are women and children, and 12 percent are people with disabilities. The population is comprised of 52 percent females and 48 percent males.

On August 25, 2017, around 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape the Myanmar military’s campaign of mass killings. Before that, more than 300,000 Rohingya had already sought refuge in Bangladesh since the 1990s to escape persecution by the Myanmar government.

As conflict intensifies between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State, the number of Rohingya crossing into Bangladesh continues to rise. Caught between the warring sides, desperate Rohingya are fleeing across the border to save their lives. Estimates suggest that an average of around 6,000 people are entering Bangladesh each month, and the situation has grown increasingly alarming.

Officials said the Rohingya camps now stretch across about 8,000 acres of government forestland in Ukhiya and Teknaf, in the Cox’s Bazar district. Continued arrivals have made it difficult to accommodate new refugees. Alongside severe environmental damage, maintaining law and order in the area has become a growing challenge.

Locals fear that if the influx continues and international aid for the Rohingya community in Bangladesh is reduced or withdrawn, Cox’s Bazar — the country’s main tourist hub — will face serious social, economic, and environmental strain.

According to data from the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), which oversees Rohingya camps, as of July 13, 2025, there were 1,143,096 refugees in 236,791 families across 34 camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf, as well as on Noakhali’s Bhasan Char. The camps see at least 30,000 births every year, averaging 82 newborns a day.