Sexual/Gender-Based Camp Violence and Institutional Response Limits: Rohingyas in Bangladesh

Abstract

Examining sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) in refugee camps exposes multiple layers of inequalities, in turn both deepening discrimination and opening new windows of problem alleviation. Those were the key findings of a field-study of Ukhia Rohingya camp in Bangladesh amid the post-2017 influxes. The relatively static SGBV social problem in, say, Myanmar’s Rakhine province, faces a more agitated setting because of (a) the forced displacement; (b) the broken family and social structures association with any dislocation; (c) the exposure to more relaxed SGBV possibilities, not necessarily in neighboring Bangladeshi communities, but largely global-driven relief workers; and (d) with migration opening exploitation opportunities, sexual and gender vulnerabilities automatically climbed. Urgent calls for protective calls highlight the lessons learned and the policy-making priorities being proposed.