Landslides kill 17 in Rohingya camps; donors should urgently reduce risks: HRW

The deadly risks facing Rohingyas in Bangladesh were evident from landslides in July 2026, that killed at least 17 people and displaced more than 3,000, Human Rights Watch said today (13 July).

"Every monsoon is becoming increasingly deadly for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with denuded hills sliding away under makeshift structures, as the funding to buttress the camps has dried up," said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"These are not simply natural disasters but a predictable outcome of policies that put refugees' lives at risk."

Bangladesh has been hosting over a million Rohingyas for nearly a decade, with expanding families crammed into bamboo and tarp shelters on steep, deforested hillsides that are highly vulnerable during the monsoon season.

As more refugees arrive from Myanmar, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has repeatedly warned of deaths and injuries in the congested camps due to lethal cyclones, floods, and landslides.

Bangladesh authorities, the UN, and donor governments should reduce overcrowding in the refugee camps and urgently restore aid for embankments, drainage, access routes, and emergency relocation sites, said the UNHCR.

The Rohingya Coordination Platform reported that between July 4 and July 9, there were 286 weather-related incidents across the camps in Cox's Bazar, affecting 26,119 refugees, including 95 landslides that displaced 4,307 people, partially damaged 2,809 shelters and destroyed 13.

Several learning centers, toilet and tap-water facilities, retaining walls, pathways, stairways, bridges, and roads have also been damaged.

Bangladesh authorities have moved more than 1,000 refugees from high-risk areas, but many have been unwilling to leave their homes.

Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people, including five Rohingya refugees affected by the landslides and four humanitarian workers involved in the emergency response.

One water, sanitation, and hygiene civil engineer said the settlement design was faulty from the start. "When the Rohingya first took shelter here, the camps were made by cutting hills and without planned drainage systems," he said.

"Now, because of funding cuts, sustainable landslide-prevention work, especially brickwork, cannot be done properly, while the Bangladesh government refuses to allow permanent constructions in the camps."

Newly arrived refugees are particularly at risk because they are not allocated formal shelters and end up renting or buying unsafe spaces, Human Rights Watch said. "I repeatedly asked NGO [nongovernmental organization] staff for a shelter, but they told me shelters were not being allocated for new arrivals," said one man, who reached Bangladesh in August 2024.

His two daughters and two grandchildren died on 6 July because they were living at the edge of hill in a makeshift shelter that he had constructed. "I didn't know the hill would collapse like this," he said.

As of May, at least 152,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox's Bazar since fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, resumed in November 2023.

A Rohingya response flash appeal for new arrivals said the initial 2025 Joint Response Plan had accounted for 50,000 new arrivals, but with three times that number now in the camps, those planning figures are inadequate.

The Bangladesh government has yet to decide on a UNHCR request for more land to accommodate these new arrivals, who have been crammed into the existing 24 square kilometers allocated for the camps.

"The government does not want the refugees to think Bangladesh as their permanent place to stay," one humanitarian worker said. "So, during any meeting the authorities seem very strict about not allowing any shelters for the new arrivals."

Because of an increasing demand for shelters, the refugees are afraid to leave their homes.

"We repeatedly raise awareness, but we can't move many people who are at risk," one aid worker said. "Just now in Camp 18, I saw that after a landslide, one house had half-collapsed into another house, but we still couldn't move people."

Aid workers also said that emergency relocation is difficult because the camps have too little space and that the temporary sites—such as learning centers or spaces to care for children, adolescents, and women—often lack privacy and adequate services.

"They worry that in learning centers or other relocation places, many people stay together and there are problems with access to toilets and other privacy concerns," the aid worker said.

In December 2024, the Bangladesh government approved construction of temporary shelters that are stronger than the existing bamboo and tarpaulin structures.

It also approved three semi-permanent shelter models and is considering pilot projects to create two-story shelters to address congestion.

It had also agreed to the reconstruction of 50,000 shelters. However, humanitarian funding cuts announced in January 2025 halted the plan.

The forest department, local representatives, and host-community members have objected to these plans, which entail permanent settlement, warning against loss of reserved forest land.

Shelter safety should be treated as a human rights issue, not as a concession toward permanent settlement, Human Rights Watch said.

Donors should fund these approved safer shelter models, and Bangladesh should continue to permit disaster-resistant designs and safe relocation spaces.

Currently the Shelter and Camp Coordination and Camp Management appeal is only 42 percent funded, with $73.9 million still required, and the disaster risk management plan has a $23.2 million gap.

The Rohingya Coordination Platform has called for immediate funding for slope stabilization, drainage, watershed management, access improvements, and technical capacity to protect lives and sustain humanitarian access throughout the monsoon season, which typically ends in October.

"Rohingya refugees won't benefit from further hand wringing, but by an urgent and effective response," Ganguly said. "Concerned governments need to act instead of waiting for the next landslide to sweep away another Rohingya family."