Lessons from the Nayapara Megaphone

Disciplining the Sale and Purchase of Food Rations in the Rohingya Camps

If you understand Rohingya language, watch this video. It was publicly posted on Facebook two days ago. I provide the full translation below and then my analysis.

Video used with permission.

Here is what the individual using the loudhailer is saying:

”One of the main reasons why food assistance in the camps has dropped from $12 to $8 and later to $7 is the buying and selling of ration food by some individuals.

Those who are selling food and those who are buying it have, through these activities, created a major negative impact on the food assistance received by the entire Rohingya community living in the camps.

Today, RRRC representative Mizanur Rahman visited the camp and stated that NGO workers and government officials have collected various photos and information about individuals involved in buying and selling rations and have sent them to higher authorities.

Based on this information, it is being assumed that around 80% of people supposedly do not need food assistance. As a result, there is now a risk that around 80% of food assistance could be reduced in the future.

Everyone is therefore being strictly warned about this issue. If anyone is caught selling food, religious scholars (ulema) and responsible community members will confiscate that food.

If rations are seen being sold openly on the streets or in public places, they will be collected immediately and handed over to the WFP (World Food Programme). Photos and information about people involved in ration trading have already been collected.

Because of the actions of a few individuals, hundreds of people are now facing danger and difficulties. From today onwards, if anyone in Nayapara Registered Camp is caught selling food, that food will be taken and submitted directly to WFP, and authorities will be informed that the person concerned does not require food assistance.

If necessary, a recommendation will be made to completely stop their food assistance. From today, ordinary residents, religious scholars, and the youth are being called upon to work together to prevent this activity.

Those who are buying and selling rations openly on the roads are requested to please stop this activity immediately. About 20 years ago, ration trading existed only on a very limited scale - for example, if someone needed 1 kg or 2 kg, they would privately exchange it near their homes. But now entire sacks of food are being sold openly on the roads, which is completely against the rules.

Previously, some food sacks marked with the American aid logo were found to have reached Myanmar, and NGO and government officials received reports about this. This created the perception that Rohingya were smuggling aid food elsewhere. As a result, food sacks with the American flag marking were stopped from being supplied.

Insha’Allah, we will all work together to stop such activities. No one - no matter how influential they are - will be allowed to sell food. Shops located along the roads must also refrain from selling such food. If anyone wants to do business, they must do so according to the rules set for the camp.

Similarly, action will also be taken against those buying and selling gas (LPG). If anyone sells food or LPG provided by WFP or the United Nations, strict action will be taken against them. Everyone is once again warned - please refrain from such activities.”

So let’s break that down.

For years, international agencies and officials have repeated that Rohingya refugees are “fully dependent on aid.” Yet this announcement from a loudhailer in Teknaf acknowledges something quite different - a functioning market inside the camps. People are selling rations, others are buying them, shops are trading food, and entire sacks are reportedly appearing on the road.

This should not be surprising. Refugees are denied legal work and freedom of movement, yet they still need cash to meet everyday needs that rations do not cover — medicine, transport, phone data, and other basic expenses. Informal markets inevitably emerge in such conditions. It happens in almost every refugee setting from Jordan to Kenya. When they do, authorities often treat them as violations rather than as evidence of an economy struggling to function under extreme restrictions.

The result is a familiar cycle. Dependency is imposed, survival strategies emerge, and those strategies are then punished as abuse of aid.

The announcement mentions that “80% of people supposedly do not need food assistance” based on the fact that trading exists. This is a classic case of misinterpreting data. The Authority’s Logic: They are selling it, so they have too much. The Human Logic: I am hungry, but my child is sick and I need cash for medicines more than I need this extra kilo of rice.

Seen in this light, the loudhailer message is less about food trading than about disciplining the informal economy of the camps. It attempts to reassert a model in which refugees are expected to consume aid passively, even though the realities of camp life make that impossible.

And that is precisely the contradiction explored in my recent essay - a system that describes refugees as dependent while simultaneously suppressing the economic activities that allow them to survive.

Another striking feature of the announcement is the call for ulema, community leaders, youth and ordinary residents to monitor ration trading and confiscate food. In other words, refugees are being asked to inform on one another and seize food from neighbours who are simply trying to survive. The message makes clear that photos of suspected traders have already been collected and that anyone caught selling rations may have their assistance stopped entirely. What is presented as community responsibility is, in practice, a system of intimidation in which the authorities and aid system push the burden of enforcement onto the refugees themselves.

And one can easily see RRRC Chief Mizanur Rahman’s imprint here - the frustration of the $12-to-$7 ration cut is redirected away from the providers and toward fellow refugees.

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