At a sports club in Camp 19, children aged between six and 15 gather to watch recorded World Cup matches on a large screen after live broadcasts were restricted in the camps over security concerns, according to the organisation running the programme.

The club, operated by the Friendship nongovernmental organisation, has created a space where children can follow their favourite teams and players while participating in football and other sporting activities.

“Girls make up around one-third of the audience,” said Molla Shihab Uddin, senior coordinator at Friendship, adding that the centre records matches and screens them the following morning.

The sports programme also provides equipment through a mobile sports library, allowing children to borrow jerseys and participate in local games inside the refugee settlements.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have faced decades of displacement and restrictions, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh following a military crackdown in 2017.

Around 1.3 million Rohingya refugees currently live in 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, where access to formal education, employment and recreational opportunities remains limited.

The Camp 19 sports club was launched in 2021 in partnership with Dutch organisation KLABU, with support from French football club Paris Saint-Germain, to promote physical and mental well-being among refugee children.

The centre now has about 1,600 regular child members, including 600 girls, who take part in football, cricket, volleyball and other activities.

Uddin said sport helps children maintain confidence and resilience in an environment where uncertainty over their future remains a major challenge.

The Rohang Heritage Center, established in Camp 6 and funded by Bangladeshi authorities in February, was launched as more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees continue to live across 33 camps in southeastern Bangladesh amid stalled efforts to repatriate them to Myanmar.

The center contains more than 200 items, including historical maps, newspaper clippings, books, photographs and recordings of the Rohingya language.
Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, said the collection was assembled from materials carried into Bangladesh by Rohingya refugees during successive waves of displacement from Myanmar.

“The items have been collected from old newspaper clippings, books published on Rohingya history, and various historical documents,” Rahman said, adding that the initiative aims to help younger Rohingya reconnect with their ethnic and cultural heritage.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, have faced decades of discrimination and statelessness. Hundreds of thousands fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown in 2017, adding to earlier refugee populations that had crossed the border over previous decades.

Bangladesh and the United Nations have repeatedly sought to facilitate the voluntary return of refugees to Myanmar, but the process has remained largely frozen amid political instability and armed conflict. Conditions deteriorated further after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, while fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State has intensified since 2024.

Camp administrator Gazi Shariful Hasan, who initiated the heritage project, said a central objective was to collect official Myanmar documents issued before 1989 that identified holders as Rohingya, preserving evidence of state recognition before citizenship rights were effectively withdrawn.

According to Hasan, the center includes civil records, political archives and profiles of Rohingya figures who once participated in Myanmar’s national political life, including former members of parliament.
“Of course, no government would allow foreign nationals to serve in its parliament, which indicates that the Myanmar government previously recognized this ethnic population,” Hasan said.

The exhibits also document the community’s intellectual, religious and cultural history, including biographies of prominent Rohingya Islamic scholars and archival material related to mosques in Rakhine State.

One section features photographs of 25 mosques built in the early 19th century in Rakhine. Organizers said many of the structures have since been destroyed, making historical photographs among the few remaining records of their existence.

The center is operated by Rohingya volunteers and serves both as a cultural archive and an educational resource for younger refugees, many of whom have spent most or all of their lives in camps and have limited access to formal education.

Bangladeshi officials said preserving cultural memory remains important as uncertainty persists over the timing and conditions for any future repatriation process.

Mohib Ullah came to prominence after going hut to hut in the camps collecting evidence of abuses against Rohingya in Myanmar, including mass killings and gang rapes, that has been shared with international investigators. He spoke at the White House and U.N Human Rights Council, asking for Rohingya to be given more of a voice in their future.

One ARSPH leader told Reuters in 2019 Mohib Ullah was being threatened by ARSA, whose attacks on security posts in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state preceded the army campaign that drove hundreds of thousands across the border.

Violent men claiming affiliation to ARSA and other armed gangs rule the camps at night, he and other refugees said, kidnapping critics and warning women against breaking conservative Islamic norms.

Several Rohingya have told Reuters in recent months ARSA and other armed gangs are behind the violence.

A close friend said on Thursday Mohib Ullah referred to ARSA as the “night government” and had continued to move from place to place to avoid being targeted by them. He said the activist had asked for protection from Bangladesh authorities and the United Nations.

ARSA, which couldn’t be reached for comment, has previously denied responsibility for criminality in the camps.

UNHCR said in a statement on Thursday it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by Mohib Ullah’s death and had “enhanced its staff presence in the camps to ensure that the Rohingya refugees have direct access to support services and can report their concerns”.

Rafiqul Islam, the police official, said Mohib Ullah had not filed complaints about the threats or sought police protection.

“If he did, we could have considered that,” he said.

Bangladesh government officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Eva Buzo, an Australian barrister representing Mohib Ullah and other victims in international criminal cases against Myanmar, said she and others had pleaded with the U.N refugee agency and foreign embassies in Bangladesh to offer him protection.

She said he was given travel permits for brief visits – in 2019 he went to meet Donald Trump at the White House and to speak to the U.N Human Rights Council – but not when he needed to escape the camp.

Diplomats and U.N officials, she said, “elevated Mohib Ullah as a moderate Rohingya leader and when he was receiving death threats no one was there to offer him protection.”