Systems and patterns are emerging in the Rohingya camps

Rohingya camps in Ukhia are 40 kilometres from Cox’s Bazar city centre. The abrupt changes to the scenery on this route are not only overwhelming but extremely powerful. There are long stretches of building complexes being developed near the city extending to the beach and green mountains in Himchhari all the way down to the vast rice plains on both sides of the road to Ukhia Upazila. The scene changes in the budding Ukhia town before melting away at the Rohingya camps in Kutupalong.

The green rice plains are welcoming after the dusty city of Cox’s Bazar. The road to the camps offers a convenient journey; the same route used as the marine drive and Himchhari Road. The traffic is tolerable, even with trucks of relief and supplies going into the camps, vehicles are moving, and no long queues form even in the two-lane road. The integration of Rohingya people is becoming more gradual; locals remark how the refugees are now discarding Burmese clothes. Girls are reportedly marrying into families of the locals as well. When asked, the locals say Rohingya women are beautiful, and local men take them as their second wives.

We pass through villages and Upazilas, which conveniently has a north end, only a few kilometres from the camps. There are local and national NGOs and international organisations, and their better structures are vivid in the midst of old buildings.

Before the newer camps of Kutupalong, there are Rohingya settlements that have been there for almost 20 years. In the camps, makeshift stores range from local grocery shops, pharmacies with herbal medicine to mobile phone repair shops, and even goldsmiths. There seems to be a flourishing economy in the camps. People carry gas cylinders on their backs, the NGOs are providing them with enough to last for at least two weeks. CNG vehicles and Tom Toms are there inside the camps as well. Rohingya men are now driving these vehicles within and outside the camps. There are small restaurants or dhabas catering food to the Rohingya. We approach two patrons with one of them eating puffed rice and curry with spoons. We learn that one has been living here since 2007 while the other is relatively new. There is a mix of people within the community; one of the patrons is a Burmese while the other seems more akin to a Bangladeshi than a Burmese.

Burmese cigarettes are in great demand and sold like wafers in plastic containers; their strong smell and leafed enclosed roll giving them an exotic look. Inside the camps, many are working or engaged in businesses such as making steel trunks and starting up mobile repair shops with stacks of smartphones and even throwing up tailors - making life a bit easier for the Rohingya.

An aerial view of the camp may look haphazard and chaotic, but specific systems and patterns are developing, especially the positioning of establishments. On both sides of the main road, there are makeshift grocery shops, learning centres, a madrasa, or mosque, and in-between, there are shops. Amid these shops are smaller roads that lead to most of the people’s homes. Located near the entrance of the camps are NGOs or official buildings.

The education centres are run by men and women in their 20s, and they look after mostly happy children running around with smiles on their faces. Most of the centres are funded by NGOs, while local people take the initiative. There are even sanitation workers to pick up waste in the camps.

But, what is alarming is the absence of police and army surveillance in the camps. From 4pm to 8am the next day, there is no police or army patrol in the area. Locals are jittery about the situation, one even going as far as to say, “In the morning it's Bangladesh, in the evening it’s Myanmar.”