In August 2017 a state sponsored ethnic cleansing in Myanmar’s Rakhine state triggered a massive exodus of the Rohingya people into Bangladesh. Within months, nearly a million Rohingya crossed the border into the district of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh seeking shelter. The sub-districts of Ukhiya and Teknaf rapidly became the site of what is now the world’s largest refugee settlement in terms of population, divided into 33 camps. In the early days, the camps were largely unplanned and highly disorganized, as no system had been prepared for such a sudden and massive influx of people. Overtime, however, the state of Bangladesh together with numerous state and non-state organizations, most notably the UNHCR, turned the camps into a highly governed and monitored space with the introduction of biometric id cards, rationing system, and numerous surveillance technologies. In this photo essay, we capture the evolution of the camps based on fieldwork conducted in 2017, 2022, 2023 and 2024. We present a visual account of how daily life, the physical layout of the camps, and the system of governance have evolved across time.
Figure 1. The Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (Source: ISCG, 2025). Location: Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Figure 2 (December 2017). Modern camps epitomize zones of spatial control, where authorities maintain precise knowledge of their populations. The Rohingya camps are no exception. A make-shift Transit Center was one of the first facilities set up by the UNHCR where the Rohingyas were ‘processed’ before being assigned a space in the camp. This image shows a few Rohingya families waiting outside the Transit Center just after arriving from Myanmar under the open sky.
Figure 3a and Figure 3b (December 2017). At the outset, the priority was to create space to accommodate the influx of Rohingya refugees, often disregarding environmental costs, including mass deforestation and the clearing of hills, as shown in these images: Balukhali on the left and Camp 2 on the right.
Figure 4 (April 2023). Consequently, landslides and fires became frequent occurrence across the camps. Numerous state and non-state organizations started extensive reforestation projects in 2018, working to regenerate vegetation and stabilize hillsides, as captured in this image from Camp 17.
Figure 5 (December 2023). Not only has vegetation regenerated across the camps, but semi-permanent concrete and brick structures have also become increasingly common. These developments have helped reduce the risk of landslides and improved accessibility within the camps, as shown in the image from Camp 13.
Figure 6 (January 2024). Due to the highly flammable materials used in the construction of camp shelters, fire hazards remain a constant threat. To mitigate this risk, mobile firefighting units have been established at numerous locations throughout the camps, as shown in this image from Camp 2 East.
Figure 7 (December 2017). As millions of Rohingya refugees poured into the camps, conditions in the early days were chaotic, and camp operations largely functioned on an ad hoc basis. Various service points were established on the go to manage the crisis on a day-to-day basis. Image 7 shows one such temporary food distribution point, where people lined up to collect food in Camp 2 East.
Figure 8 (December 2017). The distribution of drinking water to millions of refugees posed an even greater challenge, as it had to be carried out daily, unlike food distributions, which occurred fortnightly. Humanitarian agencies transported water in tanker trucks to numerous distribution points throughout the camps, as shown in this image from Camp 10.
Figure 9 (December 2023). As the years passed, the camps became increasingly organized. Distribution points were strategically established and equipped with digital technologies to monitor and manage aid distribution at the household level. The image above shows a relatively permanent food distribution center in Camp 13, where residents collect food on designated days according to their serial numbers, with distributions monitored through smart cards.
Figure 10 (March 2023). A tap stand in Camp 10 in March 2023. From 2019 onward, water distribution points gradually evolved into more structured infrastructure, including piped networks and water treatment facilities.
Figure 11 (December 2017). Despite, access to water particularly, for cleaning purposes remains a major challenge across all camps. In the early days, camp residents used small creeks and other water bodies for such purposes, as shown in this image from Balukhali camp. However, many of these water bodies have since been filled in to make space for shelters or have dried up, making access even more difficult for residents.
Figure 12 (December 2017). As the Rohingya people began settling in, small shops offering goods and services started to emerge across the camps. A father and his son queue for a haircut at a makeshift barber shop in Camp 2 East.
Figure 13 (December 2023). As the camps began to take shape with more stable infrastructure, such as food distribution centres and water supply systems, large marketplaces also emerged. While “pop-up shops” are still found across the camps, most are now concentrated in marketplaces like this one in Camp 13, catering to a wide range of daily necessities.
Figure 14 (December 2017). While children are among the most vulnerable populations in contexts of violence and displacement, they are also highly adaptable. In this image from Camp 1, a group of Rohingya children is seen playing with a makeshift rope in a small open space behind a row of toilets, illustrating how play and everyday social life persist even within constrained environments.
Figure 15 (December 2023). As the camps evolved, many now include playgrounds, such as this one in Camp 13. Rohingya residents regularly organize inter-camp football competitions on these fields, which serve as an effective stress reliever in lives marked by ongoing stress and violence.
Figure 16 (December 2017). Death is also dealt with in a makeshift manner, as life in the most densely populated refugee camp in the world remains marked by a chronic shortage of space. Hilltops are often used as burial grounds, where graves are subject to repeated reuse.
Figure 17a and Figure 17b (January 2024). As the camps have become more organized, so too have their governing mechanisms, including surveillance systems. CCTV cameras and panoptic structures are now frequently found across the camps, such as these in Camp 13.
Figure 18 (March 2023). Not only technologies and tools, but all the camps also have a strong presence of governing personnel, headed by a camp-in-charge (CiC). CiC offices are typically the most prominent and permanent structures within a camp, such as this one in Camp 7.
Figure 19 (January 2024). “Security” is one of the main concerns in the camps and is overtly expressed through the presence of armed security personnel, not only on duty but also within their barracks. The image shows an Armed Police Battalion (APBN) residence secured by walls and fences adjacent to Camp 14. A combination of surveillance technologies, bureaucracy, and security personnel produces a complex, multi-layered, and highly punitive system of governance in the camps, generating constant tension between those who govern and those who are governed. An unease that is immediately felt upon entering the camps.
Md Azmeary Ferdoush’s research was funded by a Research Council of Finland postdoctoral grant (No. 347212). Morsaline Mojid’s research was funded by the J.P. Sharma Memorial Scholarship from the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA; the Soroptimist Founder Region Fellowship; and the International Studies Association Dissertation Fellowship.