There are no Bangladeshi laws or policies that explicitly guarantee the right to access primary public health care services for refugees and asylum-seekers in the national system. However, the strategies and guidelines framed specifically for the Rohingya refugees provide the those residing in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char with the right to access primary public health care services within the Rohingya response framework agreed upon between the Government of Bangladesh and humanitarian organizations. The framework for Rohingya response does not include the non-Rohingya asylum-seekers' or refugees’ right to access public health care services In Bangladesh. Some non-Rohingya asylum seekers and refugees through their own arrangements are known to access primary healthcare services as the domestic laws or policies do not create any bar to access primary healthcare services. 

The Constitution of People’s Republic of Bangladesh states in Article 15(a) that it is one of the fundamental obligations of the state to ensure the necessities of life that includes treatment to its citizens. Though this article focuses on the citizens, Article 18(1) of the Bangladesh Constitution states that “[t]he State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties...”.1  Moreover, the Constitution has guaranteed the right to life and liberty of all person2 and through broad interpretation of this right to life, the Supreme Court has included the right to access health care as a fundamental right for all including non-citizens.3 In 2018, Bangladesh enacted the ‘Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act, 2018’ to address public health emergencies and to reduce health risks. The Act applies to all individuals in general and hence may be argued to apply to asylum-seekers and refugees too. The Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009 also states the duty of local governments to play a crucial role in the monitoring and delivery of public healthcare services at the Union Level (Union Parishads are the lowest administrative unit).4 To grant access to healthcare services and drugs to all people, Bangladesh enacted the ‘Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 2023’, which therefore may also be argued to be applicable to asylum-seekers and refugees.5 Moreover, the Disaster Management Act, 2012 ensures primary healthcare services for all people during emergencies such as natural disasters or crises regardless of citizenship of the affected population.6  The National Health Policy, 2011 has incorporated into its vision and objectives to ensure equitable health services along with access to primary health services and emergency medical services for all.7

Some of the relevant domestic laws, policy and operational response are considered favorable to asylum-seekers and refugees’ access to primary healthcare services. In the Rohingya response the ‘Health Sector’8 (as part of the inter-agency humanitarian response coordination mechanism) provides health services to Rohingya refugees pursuant to several strategies and guidelines adopted for Rohingya response Health Sector Strategic Plan 2023-2024 focuses on providing essential health services to Rohingya refugees and the host community. As the camps settings for the Rohingya refugees provide only primary level of healthcare services through 48 Health Posts and 46 Primary Health Care Clinics (as of June 2025),9 Health Sector Patient Referral Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been adopted that outlines procedure to refer the patients to secondary or tertiary level of healthcare facilities. Due The Family Planning Strategy for the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar National (FDMN) Humanitarian Crisis 2022-25 approved by the Government sets the strategy of delivering family planning services to Rohingya refugees in a collaborative way through the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Working Group.  

Technical documents include the Minimum Package of Essential Health Services for Primary Healthcare Facilities in FDMN/ Rohingya Refugee Camps that guides the delivery of standard package of evidence based, essential healthcare services by the health partners in an equitable manner, while ensuring accessibility and quality. The Director General of Health Services has introduced a document titled ‘Director General of Health Services Treatment Guidelines for FDMN/Rohingya Refugee’ in 2018 that sets out a common protocol for clinical management to maintain an optimum standard for health services with minimum resources. ‘Health and Protection Joint Operational Framework - Working Together to Improve Health and Protection Outcomes’ has been developed to ensure high-quality services that satisfy the needs of impacted persons and vulnerable groups according to their circumstances or vulnerabilities, and to assure that the health and protection response during humanitarian catastrophes can adjust to each setting and is well coordinated. 

Other documents such as the Multi-Sector Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD)/Cholera Preparedness and Response Plan 2022-23 aim to mitigate the impact of future AWD and cholera outbreaks and streamline multi-sector response and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) Framework - August 2021 that attempts to strengthen Accountability of the health partners through Communication and Community Engagement.  

In the Rohingya refugee camps there are functional healthcare facilities offering a range of general healthcare services to over one million Rohingya refugees. This includes primary healthcare centers, health posts, special facilities, and field hospitals where major surgeries occur if needed. Partner-led healthcare centers in the camps coordinate efforts with the existing government facilities to ensure early access to life-saving treatment for Rohingya refugees when needed. 

In August 2023, to improve healthcare services for thousands of Rohingya refugees living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and facilitate a seamless flow of medical information and enhance overall well-being to accessible comprehensive healthcare, a General Health Card (GHC) was introduced in the camps. Designed to consolidate individual medical information, the GHC is being used to transform healthcare delivery within the camps. It enables doctors and health care providers to access a patient’s complete health history, including treatment received, surgical procedures, medical investigations, and more – all in one place.  

The Primary Healthcare services of the Rohingya refugees are ensured by several mechanisms in the camps. Through Community Level Health Care Rohingya refugees access primary healthcare services delivered by community health workers (CHWs). Each of the 48Health Post provides for every 10,000 refugees, and each of the 46 Primary Health Centre (PHC) caters for 25,000-30,000 refugees.  Through primary healthcare services, the Health Sector seeks to "minimize [excess] morbidity and mortality and improve the health and nutrition status and overall wellbeing of refugees" following the acute period of the crisis.10 To achieve the Sector Primary Health Care (PHC) objective, the Minimum Package of Essential Health Services (MPEHS) was strategically created as a standard guide. The minimum package contains services like Primary prevention: RCCE, Mobilization, Screening/Referral by the CHWs. The Health Posts are engaged in delivering simple curative, maternal/child health and immunization services with referral to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) facilities that remain operational 24 hoursa day and 7 days a week delivering the essential PHC services.11 Still, the Rohingya refugees face a number of difficulties with the healthcare services they receive, such as low health literacy, lengthy wait times for services, language barriers, geographic limitations, delayed access to advanced diagnostics for complex patients, patient mistrust of the medical system, access to alternative medicine, and a shortage of some specialized, costly medications, among other issues.12 Furthermore, reports of challenges around the registration of some Rohingya refugee children for humanitarian assistance and protection unless the mother has agreed to health authority's request for long term family planning.13 In this regard, UNHCR and other organizations operating in the camps are advocating to their government counterparts that family planning guidelines should adhere to the principles of transparency, nondiscrimination, voluntariness, and universal human rights. 

Alongside these, the UNHCR provides the non-Rohingya asylum-seekers and refugees with need-based individual cash assistance that help them to access primary healthcare services in Bangladesh. 

• 1

  Article 18(1), The Constitution of People’s Republic of Bangladesh 

• 2

  Article 32, The Constitution of the People‌‌‍’s Republic of Bangladesh

• 3

  Writ Petition No. 1783/1994 (Doctor’s strike case); Dr. M. Farooque v. Bangladesh, 48 D.L.R. 438 (HCD 1996) (Bangladesh).

• 4

  Section 6 and 7, Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009

• 5

  Section 6, 14, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 2023

• 6

  Section 25, Disaster Management Act, 2012

• 7

  National Health Policy 2011, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, The Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh

• 8

  The Government and the health partners have established a cohesive and coherent health system for Rohingya refugees/FDMNs and the host community named, ‘Health Sector’

• 9

  Health Sector Strategic Plan 2023-24, Health Sector, Cox’s Bazar, pg. iv

• 10

  Health Sector Strategic Plan, 2023-24, Health Sector, Cox’s Bazar, p. 2 

• 11

  Minimum Package of Essential Health Services for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Facilities, Bangladesh Rohingya Response at Cox's Bazar, (2024), p. 3

• 12

  MD Franklyn Rocha-Cabrero, ’The Rohingya healthcare experience: A case for disparities in care’, Humanity Auxilium, Aug 18, 2022. Available at: https://www.humanityauxilium.com/post/the-rohingya-healthcare-experience-a-case-for-disparities-in-care 

• 13

  Jacob Goldberg, ’Rohingya women coerced to use contraception in Bangladesh refugee camps’, Human Rights Investigation, 29 May 2025. Available at: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations/2025/05/29/rohingya-women-coerced-use-contraception-bangladesh-refugee-camps