The people between refugees and services: social workers in the Rohingya camps

Why it matters

Since the mass displacement from Myanmar in 2017, the camps around Cox’s Bazar have become one of the largest and longest-running humanitarian settings in the world. Much has been written about camp conditions and the work of international agencies. Far less has been written about the social workers who connect individual refugees and families to help.

What the researcher did

Abdur Rakib (University of Rajshahi) collected data in three camps: Kutupalong-Balukhali, Hakimpara and Jamtoli. He spoke with 44 people who work directly in the refugee response, in social, psychosocial, protection and education roles. He used 26 in-depth interviews and three focus groups of six participants each, and checked the findings against reports and policy documents.

What he found

• Social workers do much more than casework. They:
  • assess needs and provide psychosocial support;
  • protect children and survivors of gender-based violence;
  • refer people to health, legal and education services;
  • mobilise communities and speak up for groups such as older people.
• Reaching people is part of the job. Mobile outreach teams find refugees in remote parts of the camps who would otherwise be disconnected from services.
• What works: careful needs assessment, refugees’ own participation, cultural sensitivity, fast referrals and good coordination between agencies.
• What holds them back:
  • Training gaps: limited preparation in trauma-informed counseling and crisis intervention.
  • Workload: heavy caseloads that leave little time per person.
  • Funding: the article notes that the 2025 response plan was only about a third funded.
  • Language: Rohingya differs from the local Chittagonian dialect.
  • Coordination: responsibilities overlap between organisations.

What it means

The study’s central argument is recognition. Social work should be formally acknowledged as a humanitarian profession by the government of Bangladesh and by international agencies. That recognition should come with specialized training, more staff, stable funding, and clear referral systems, and refugees should take part in shaping the services meant for them.

The study draws on the views of people working in the response, not refugees themselves, and on a short period of fieldwork. It nonetheless gives a rare inside view of a profession that keeps services running at the level of individual families.

Read the article

Rakib, A. (2026). Responding to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis: The Role of Social Workers in Bangladesh. Journal of Social Solutions, 1, e0002.
https://mjournals.org/journal/social-solutions/article/2026.0002