Where the Rohingya live today

Status & community

Home to the world's largest refugee settlement. UNHCR counted 1.09 million registered Rohingya in Cox's Bazar plus ~36,000 on Bhasan Char at end-2024; renewed violence in Rakhine drove roughly 150,000 new arrivals between late-2024 and mid-2025, pushing the total back toward 1.5 million. Not recognised as refugees under Bangladeshi law. WFP rations were cut, restored, and squeezed again during the 2024–25 funding crisis, sitting near US$12 per person per month; child acute malnutrition tops 15%. Rohingya cannot legally work, leave the camps, or attend Bangladeshi schools, and armed groups (ARSA, RSO) increasingly compete for control inside the camps.

Status & community

Ancestral homeland. Rendered stateless by the 1982 Citizenship Law. Around 140,000 remain confined to IDP camps near Sittwe — HRW still calls them an 'open-air prison' 13 years on. Since the 2021 coup Rohingya men have been forcibly conscripted by the junta, while the Arakan Army seized most of northern Rakhine in 2024, with Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships largely burned in the fighting. Movement, marriage, education, and healthcare are all restricted; a new wave of atrocities in 2024 pushed tens of thousands across the Naf River into Bangladesh.

Status & community

One of the oldest and largest Rohingya diasporas — many arrived on Hajj or Umrah visas from the 1970s onward and remained under successive royal decrees. Most still hold Bangladeshi, Pakistani, or expired Burmese travel documents rather than Saudi nationality; a minority obtained residency (iqama) via the 2010s regularisation drive. The rest live in Mecca's older quarters vulnerable to detention and deportation.

Status & community

Descendants of Rohingya who fled the 1948–52 and 1978 expulsions, plus later 1990s arrivals. Most are undocumented — the 2000 Citizenship Act excludes them and CNIC applications are routinely refused. They dominate parts of Karachi's fishing and shrimp-peeling economy, and are periodically caught up in Pakistan's undocumented-foreigner deportation drives (renewed 2023–2025).

Status & community

The largest UNHCR-registered Rohingya population in the world (≈113,000 as of mid-2025). Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, so Rohingya have no legal right to work, formal education, or public healthcare; children born in Malaysia are stateless. Immigration raids and detention continue, and boat arrivals across the Andaman Sea persist despite pushbacks.

Status & community

Long-standing community, most working in construction, retail, transport, and small trading. Hold work visas tied to sponsors (kafala); no path to Emirati citizenship. Many carry Bangladeshi or Pakistani passports of convenience obtained decades ago.

Status & community

India is not party to the Refugee Convention. Since 2017 the government has officially classed Rohingya as illegal migrants; hundreds have been detained in Jammu, Delhi, and Assam, and deportations to Myanmar resumed in 2021 and continued through 2024–25. Living conditions in Jammu and Delhi settlements have deteriorated after fires and demolitions; most children are excluded from state schools.

Status & community

The largest Western resettlement community, referred by UNHCR mainly from Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Thailand. Green-card and naturalisation pathways are available. The Rohingya Culture Center Chicago, Rohingya American Society, and Burma Task Force USA lead advocacy; refugee admissions have fluctuated sharply with US policy shifts.

Status & community

Community grew after 2012, expanded significantly after 2017. Türkiye grants Rohingya conditional refugee status ('humanitarian residence permit'); AFAD and IHH have run resettlement projects in Kayseri. Rohingya organisations here are active advocates for the ICJ case.

Status & community

Historically a transit country on the smuggling route to Malaysia; the 2015 discovery of mass graves in Songkhla exposed the trafficking network. Rohingya arrivals are routinely held in immigration detention with women and children in shelters. Thailand has no refugee protection framework and is not party to the 1951 Convention.

Status & community

Resettled primarily under the Government-Assisted Refugee programme (2006–present) and private sponsorship. Canada was the first country whose parliament formally recognised the 2017 events as genocide (September 2018 House of Commons vote) and has since imposed Magnitsky sanctions on senior Tatmadaw officers.

Status & community

Includes people resettled from Malaysia and Bangladesh, plus a smaller group who arrived by boat before the 2013 offshore-processing regime. Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation (ABRO) leads advocacy; some remain in limbo on Nauru or Papua New Guinea legacy caseloads.

Status & community

Boat arrivals surged during the 2023–24 sailing seasons as Andaman Sea crossings rose; Acehnese fishermen rescued hundreds. Growing local backlash in 2024–25 has led to camp relocations and, in some cases, hostile crowds. UNHCR processes cases but Indonesia offers no permanent status — most hope for onward resettlement.

Status & community

Mix of resettled refugees and asylum seekers who arrived via Türkiye and the Balkan route from 2015 onward. Recognition rates for Rohingya asylum claims are very high given the documented persecution; Germany joined the Netherlands and others in intervening at the ICJ.

Status & community

Small but organised community; home of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), one of the most influential voices behind the ICJ genocide case. Bradford has hosted Rohingya since the early 2000s under the Gateway Protection Programme.

Status & community

Small community that arrived after 2012. UNHCR-registered but with no right to work or access public services. Live in a single informal settlement on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Status & community

Resettled under NZ's refugee quota programme; Rohingya first arrived under the 2008 quota intake. Small but active community with full residency and citizenship pathways.

Status & community

Small community concentrated in Tatebayashi since the early 2000s, working in halal butchery, food processing, and used-car export. Japan grants only a tiny number of full refugee statuses; most Rohingya hold 'special permission to stay' or long-term resident visas.

Status & community

Received Rohingya asylum seekers from 2015 onward via the Balkan and Mediterranean routes. Small but growing community with full protection rights and strong civil-society support.

Status & community

Small asylum-seeker community. The Netherlands (with Canada) formally intervened in The Gambia v. Myanmar at the ICJ in 2020 and again backed provisional measures in 2024.

Status & community

Small resettlement group hosted mainly in Carlow since 2009 under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme. Hold full residency rights; often cited as one of the more successfully integrated Rohingya communities in Europe.