United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has backed the credibility of Bangladesh’s Rohingya registration system, stating that the verification and registration of refugees in camps have been carried out properly and in accordance with internationally recognised standards.
This response comes amid a fresh dispute over Myanmar’s verification of a list of more than 828,824 Rohingyas submitted by Bangladesh for repatriation.
Myanmar recently stated it had completed verification of 426,545 names, of which 308,797 were confirmed as former residents of Rakhine State, while 113,507 could not be verified, prompting protests from Bangladesh regarding the verification process.
Shari Nijman, communications officer of UNHCR Bangladesh, confirmed that the registration and verification process has been conducted jointly by the UNHCR and the Bangladesh government since 2018.
She explained that each refugee was assigned a biometric identity on arrival, which was linked to biographical information contained in documents carried from Myanmar. This identity has since been confirmed and progressively strengthened over time through repeated in-person engagement in the camps.
According to Nijman, the system is continuously updated to capture births, new arrivals, and other changes, keeping the records accurate and current. The registration enables the UNHCR and the humanitarian community to provide protection, assistance, essential services, and identity documents to the displaced population.
Eight centres keep refugee databases updated
The credibility and continuing operation of the registration system are also evident on the ground, with eight verification centres currently active.
During a visit to the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar this week, it was found that seven registration centres are fully operational and actively updating refugee records, while another registration centre is active in Bhasan Char.
These centres are being used to update individual and family-level information as the refugee population changes through new arrivals, births, deaths, and other demographic developments.
Registration is not a one-time exercise
Officials stated that the registered Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar is currently divided into three broad categories according to their period of arrival.
According to UNHCR population data updated on 31 July 2026, the first category comprises 39,856 Rohingyas from the 1990 influx, belonging to 8,721 families.
The second and largest category consists of 1,007,488 refugees who arrived after the 2017 mass exodus, officially classified as Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs), representing 201,214 families.
The third category comprises 154,690 new arrivals who entered Bangladesh after 2023, belonging to 40,646 families. Of these, 33,659 Rohingyas from 7,504 families are now living in Bhasan Char.
These figures underline a critical fact that the databases are not static and have continued to evolve long after the original registration exercise.
Bangladesh officials and UNHCR sources noted that the refugee records are continuously updated, meaning the population registered in the camps today is not identical to the population recorded when the joint registration began in 2018.
Mizanur Rahman, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, said incorporating births, deaths, and family changes creates an important distinction between the original 2018 registration database and the current updated system.
A growing generational displacement crisis
This evolution raises a critical question for the repatriation process regarding how people added to the records later – including children born in Bangladesh and refugees who arrived after 2018 – are being treated.
Bangladesh is now hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, turning what began as an emergency response into one of the world’s largest and most protracted refugee crises.
The population is no longer composed exclusively of those who fled Myanmar during the 2017 mass displacement, as years of growth have created a large second generation of Rohingyas born in Bangladesh.
Major (Retd) Emdadul Islam, a former diplomat and expert on Bangladesh-Myanmar relations, described the situation as a “generational displacement crisis.”
He noted that the repatriation challenge is no longer simply about returning those who fled Rakhine, but also involves determining how Myanmar will verify children born in Bangladesh whose parents are registered refugees, as well as those who arrived after the original exercise.
UCR rejects Myanmar’s verification claims
The United Council of Rohingya (UCR), an elected representative body of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, has rejected Myanmar’s latest verification claims as misleading and an attempt to evade responsibility.
Sayed Alam, a member of the UCR presidential panel, told the Times of Bangladesh that Myanmar was effectively questioning the identity of many Rohingyas to delay their return.
He asserted that Rohingyas are indigenous to Rakhine State and that any repatriation must guarantee citizenship, security, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights.
The UCR further argued that the failure to verify large numbers of Rohingyas could become another barrier to sustainable repatriation.
This highlights a fundamental problem where Bangladesh and the UNHCR maintain an active, biometric system while Myanmar applies its own separate criteria.
Unless both sides agree on a common mechanism for reconciling records, the process could become an endless administrative exercise.
With more than 1.2 million Rohingyas in Bangladesh, every year of delay creates a new demographic reality, making it increasingly difficult to resolve who can return and with what rights.
