The Rohingya crisis, one of the longest and most intractable humanitarian catastrophes in modern history, is entering a darker phase. Years after being driven from their homes by Myanmar’s military in 2017, the Rohingya now face collapsing livelihoods, dwindling aid, and tightening restrictions in both Bangladesh and Myanmar. What remains is a population caught between borders, unwanted by states, and increasingly invisible to the world.

Today, more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, while at least 150,000 remain displaced inside Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Their stories-of dispossession, survival, and despair-form part of a broader tragedy of exclusion. The Rohingya are not just poor; they are systematically denied the right to work, move, or live with dignity. As international attention shifts elsewhere and donors scale back, the walls of their confinement are closing in.

For the Rohingya who remain inside Myanmar, life has become a daily battle for survival. The renewed conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, which reignited in late 2023 after a fragile ceasefire, has devastated Rakhine State. By April 2024, the Arakan Army launched major offensives in Buthidaung and Maungdaw, razing entire villages and displacing thousands of families. Some tried to flee to Bangladesh but were turned away at the sealed border. Others were killed, trapped between warring forces.

Transport routes are blocked, markets shuttered, and humanitarian aid has virtually disappeared. Families cannot afford travel permits, food prices have soared, and malnutrition is spreading. Once-vibrant livelihoods like farming and fishing-central to Rohingya survival-have been destroyed. With checkpoints and extortion by armed groups, many have abandoned their fields altogether. “We don’t have any income source anymore,” said one resident of Maungdaw township. “Even if we want to start a business, there are no customers. Most people already fled.”

Cross-border trade from India and Bangladesh offers........

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