Syed Karim and his family have been staying in the sprawling Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar for the last eight years.

Like hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh in 2017, Karim left his home and farm in Myanmar's Sittwe district to protect his family from the violence and persecution.

Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017 following insurgent attacks on guard posts in Rakhine state.

The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the U.N.

More than a million Rohingya refugees living in dozens of camps in coastal Bangladesh are still hoping for a safe return to their previous home in Rakhine state.

The situation in the camps is dire, and the resources scarce.

Karim's wife Jannatara, 30, is worried about how she can provide food and education for their four children.

 

“There is nothing here brother, we could not cook anything. We could not provide lunch for our children. Our children are not able to go to school, and my husband does not have a job,” she said, showing the empty cooking vessels in her kitchen.

 

Karim said food supplies have been dwindling, and the family's return to Myanmar is uncertain.

"We are also not able to go to Myanmar. What are we going to do here? Who is going to take responsibility for it? We are very worried about it,” he said.

 

The UN has been running skill development facilities to provide work opportunities to Rohingya women.

In Kutupalong, one of the largest refugee settlements in Cox's Bazar, dozens of women sew garments at a livelihood project run by UNHCR.

The products made by Rohingya women at the project are distributed among the refugees in the camps.

But it is not enough to support their families, said Ayesha Siddiqa, 21, a Rohingya refugee.

 

“I want to go back to Burma. If we are not able to go back to Burma, we want more support here—for example, the kind of support we used to get before. If we don’t get that sort of support, we will die of hunger,” she said.

 

The funding cuts have also impacted provision of health services at the camps.

The refugees in need of medical assistance line up daily at the Friendship Hospital, run by a charity group.

Aid groups say the indirect impact of USAID shutdown on other funding agencies has led to a sharp decline in resources available on the ground.

 

"Indirectly, yes, of course we have suffered, because the fund we receive from the other agencies like the UN agencies, they have that impact," of the cuts, said Dr. Kazi Golam Rasul, a senior official of Friendship Health.

"So automatically what happened, the amount has been reduced for us in some cases to 50%."

On Monday, Bangladesh hosted a stakeholders conference to discuss the Rohingya crisis. Many of the participating delegates visited the refugee camps on Tuesday.

 

Bangladesh's interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has urged the international community to facilitate a process for the safe return of the refugees, to speed up the repatriation process and to support them with food and other amenities.

Since 2017, Bangladesh has attempted at least twice to send the refugees back, asking the Myanmar’s government to establish a peaceful environment that could assist their repatriation. 

But the situation inside Myanmar has remained volatile, especially in Rakhine state. 

AP Video shot by AL Emrun Garjon