A Call for Justice, Dignity, and Recognition
By RO Maung Shwe | Kutupalong Camp 2W
Each year on May 1st, the world observes International Labour Day, a moment to honour the dignity, contribution, and rights of workers across the globe. But inside the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly a million Rohingya survive in confinement, Labour Day passes not with celebration—but with silence.
For Rohingya refugees, work is not just about income but about survival. In overcrowded camps where legal employment is restricted and aid is insufficient, many are forced to seek daily labour outside the camps. They risk arrest, injury, and exploitation—not because they want to, but because they must.
A Day’s Work, a Fraction of the Pay
While local Bangladeshi labourers earn around 800 BDT daily, Rohingya workers doing the same tasks are often paid only 300 to 400 BDT.
They climb trees, dig soil, carry bricks, and harvest fields under the same sun—yet their sweat is priced less.
Their undocumented status makes them easy targets for exploitation and wage theft. Many employers feel no obligation to provide safety, compensation, or even dignity.
The Cost of Labour: Nur Ahamed’s Story
Meet Nur Ahamed, a 30-year-old Rohingya worker from northern Maungdaw, now living in Kutupalong Camp 2W. Like thousands of others, he fled Myanmar following the 2017 military crackdown.
“Back in Myanmar, education had no value. Even with degrees, Rohingya had no future. I worked on my father’s farmland. Here, I climb trees to cut branches—for just 400 BDT a day.”
Last week, while cutting tree branches on a job outside the camp, Nur fell from over 50 feet high.
“My body broke. The employer didn’t help. Fellow workers carried me back to the camp. Even the NGO clinic couldn’t provide proper treatment. Now I lie in pain, not knowing how to feed my family.”
His story is not an exception—it is the daily reality of countless Rohingya men and youth trapped between poverty and invisibility.
Children in Chains of Labour
The burden of labour is not confined to adults. In a disturbing trend, Rohingya children—many under 15—are leaving behind classrooms and stepping into hazardous work.
Denied access to formal education and pressed by family hardship, they become brick carriers, field workers, and construction helpers.
Each lost school day is a stolen future.
Each working child is a silent tragedy the world has chosen to ignore.
Labour Day in the Camps: A Reminder, Not a Celebration
Where most of the world sees May 1st as a day of rights and recognition, the Rohingya see a reminder of exclusion. Their labour powers the fields, feeds the economy, and fills the cracks—but goes unseen, unpaid, and unprotected.
They don’t ask for charity.
They ask for justice, dignity, and recognition—the basic rights every worker deserves.
Time to Listen, Time to Act
The struggles of Rohingya workers are not just local—they are global. It is a moral test for the international community, host governments, and humanitarian organizations.
On this Labour Day, Rohingya Khobor calls upon:
- Authorities to ensure safe, fair work conditions and protection against exploitation
- Aid agencies to expand vocational and income-generating opportunities
- Civil society and media to amplify the voices of the invisible workers
- Policy-makers to recognize that labour without rights is modern slavery
A Final Word
“Resilience is not consent,” said a Rohingya teacher-turned-labourer.
“We work because we must—but we bleed the same, dream the same, and deserve the same.”
Let Labour Day not just celebrate the powerful and protected.
Let it become a voice for the stateless, the displaced, and the forgotten workers—like Nur Ahamed.
Because if labour has dignity, then so must the labourer.
