Amnesty International warned that the repatriation of over a million Rohingya people from Bangladesh to Myanmar would be ‘catastrophic’ under current conditions in northern Rakhine State, where communities face forced labour, hunger, health crises and escalating armed conflict.
The warning comes ahead of a UN General Assembly high-level conference scheduled for Monday to discuss the plight of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, and possible pathways for repatriation.
Most Rohingyas now in Bangladesh were violently expelled from Myanmar in 2016–17 in what the UN described as a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Nearly eight years later, Amnesty’s new findings suggest conditions in northern Rakhine remain unfit for safe, voluntary and dignified return.
Based on interviews with newly arrived Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and testimonies from humanitarian workers, Amnesty reported that Rohingyas in northern Rakhine are trapped between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, the ethnic Rakhine armed group that has taken control of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and much of northern Rakhine since 2024.
‘The Arakan Army has, to many Rohingya, replaced the Myanmar military as their oppressor,’ Amnesty’s Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said.
He alleged that while the military forcibly recruits Rohingyas to fight, the AA imposes harsh restrictions on their movement, forces them into unpaid labour, and subjects them to arbitrary arrests and violence.
Rohingyas recounted being beaten for refusing to work, denied food, and blocked from fishing or farming while ethnic Rakhine people retained relative freedom. Several described forced recruitments of young men and even boys as night guards or combatants. Women reported families being taxed in rice and having to pay fees just to travel between villages.
The humanitarian situation has worsened sharply as international aid flows have been cut and conflict disrupted supply routes. The World Food Programme recently said that half of all families in central Rakhine were unable to meet basic food needs, while the situation in northern Rakhine – where aid agencies have little or no access – is believed to be worse.
Amnesty documented cases of Rohingya dying in camps due to lack of food and clean water. Rohingyas said the AA withheld humanitarian supplies and mocked them when family members fell sick or died.
One 60-year-old man who fled to Bangladesh in July said AA soldiers told him and his neighbours, ‘This is not your country. Nothing here belongs to you. Get out.’
The UN high commissioner for human rights reported earlier this month that many of the restrictions imposed on Rohingyas by successive Myanmar governments remain unchanged under AA rule. These include denying their ethnic identity, referring to them only as ‘Bengalis’ or ‘Muslims,’ and limiting their access to healthcare and education.
Amnesty concluded that the cycle of abuses mirrors the systematic persecution Rohingyas suffered under the Myanmar military before their mass flight.
Amnesty urged the international community, including Bangladesh, not to push forward with any repatriation plans without significant changes in Myanmar.
‘While it is important to keep international attention on the Rohingya crisis, any attempt to send refugees back now would risk exposing them to fresh waves of violence and deprivation,’ Freeman said.
Bangladesh currently hosts around 1.2 million Rohingyas, most living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. Over 150,000 new arrivals have crossed the border since early 2024, fleeing intensified conflict.
With conditions worsening on both sides of the border, rights groups say international pressure must be maintained on Myanmar authorities and the Arakan Army to ensure accountability, protection, and recognition of Rohingya rights before any return can take place.
