How CiCs Rule Rohingya Camps Without Oversight
Today, the Dhaka Tribune published my long-form essay on the Camp-in-Charge system.
In Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char, real power lies not with UN agencies, but with Bangladesh’s Camp-in-Charge. They are unelected administrators with sweeping authority and almost no oversight.
Drawing on leaked APBn documents, new academic research and direct testimony, the article examines how this system operates, how abuse takes root, and why Bangladesh’s constitutional protections simply do not reach the camps.
The key findings:
CiCs exercise control over mobility, dispute resolution, security coordination and mobile courts with minimal oversight.
Evidence from Teknaf reveals patronage-based governance and interference in legal processes.
Testimony from Bhasan Char includes allegations of violence, coercion, and arbitrary sentencing.
Denial of refugee legal status keeps the population outside the formal justice system, enabling administrative impunity.
The system constitutes a constitutional gap where protections under Articles 31 and 35 do not meaningfully apply.
While national debates revolve around repatriation, diplomacy or donor fatigue, almost no one asks the basic question - who governs the camps, and under what law? This piece tries to answer that question and hopefully starts the conversation Bangladesh has avoided for too long.
If space allowed, I would also have addressed the increasingly complicit role of UNHCR, especially on Bhasan Char, and of other “humanitarian” actors who operate comfortably within this architecture of control. That story is coming.