Bangladesh does not have specific domestic laws and policies that explicitly recognize the right to adequate housing for refugees or asylum-seekers.  Under Article 15 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the State has a fundamental responsibility to provide adequate housing facilities for its citizens only. Moreover, the Government of Bangladesh enacted National Housing Policy, 2016 to ensure “people from all strata of society” have access to adequate housing. Relevant housing, land and property (HLP) laws such as the Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act,1949, State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950, Transfer of Property Act, 1882, Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act, 2017 and Registration Act, 1908 neither explicitly prohibit nor grant HLP related rights to non-citizens. However, in practice, narrow interpretation of laws and restrictive government policies/instructions create challenges for non-citizens to access HLP rights equally. 

Foreigners, meaning non-citizens,1 have limited rights to housing in Bangladesh. Though the law restricts a foreigner from buying any kind of land in a personal capacity, as per the Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act of 1980, subject to prior approval of the concerned authority, and upon fulfillment of certain conditions, the legal framework allows foreigners to purchase property for residential purposes only from anyone other than the public authorities. Though technically refugees and asylum-seekers may be included under the definition of ‘foreigners,’ legally their rights are restricted and under this Act they do not have the same right to purchase as other foreigners.  

 Regarding the Rohingya refugees, the Government of Bangladesh prepared a ‘Resettlement Policy Framework’ in January 2019 under the Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project (EMCRP) to establish policies and procedures for preventing or mitigating adverse impacts related to involuntary land acquisition and resettlement.2 The Government has not included any provision regarding acquiring land for the Rohingya refugees in this Resettlement Policy Framework and instead adopted a ‘no land acquisition’ policy and has relied on voluntary or temporary land donation for settlement and housing of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The Government additionally allocated around 26 square kilometers (6,425 acres) of forest land in Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees, as permitted by Section 27 of the Forest Act of 1927.3

The Rohingya refugees are hosted in 33 highly congested camps in Cox’s Bazar, and starting 2020, some 35,000 registered refugees have been relocated to Bhasan Char (the number of registered refugees living in Bhasan Char is currently 36,920 as of 31 Mar 2025), an island in Noakhali District. Since 2021, in the refugee camps, the Government authorized the provision of one 150 sq. ft. shelter unit for Rohingya refugee families with 1 to 4 members. However, the reality is that families with 7 or more members are allocated an additional shelter of up to 300 sq. ft. with prior approval of the Camp-in-Charge (CiC; the appointed government officials overseeing individual camps). These shelters are considered emergency shelters designed to meet immediate humanitarian needs rather than long-term housing solutions. The emergency shelters are generally constructed from materials such as bamboo, rope, tarpaulin and plastic sheets. The Government of Bangladesh has relocated a small portion of registered Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char where the housing facilities are comparatively better than the camps in Cox’s Bazar. The semi-structured buildings on Bhasan Char were created in furtherance of the Government’s ‘Ashrayan-3' (Shelter-3) project approved by Bangladesh’s Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in 2017.  The Government has not permitted permanent structures to be built in the refugee camps for Rohingya refugees as the Government’s officially declared position is that Rohingya refugees are allowed into Bangladesh only on a humanitarian ground and temporarily. However, more recently, the government has allowed construction of safer shelter at the end of December 20244 in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. After the issuance of the letter, the humanitarian partners in consultation with the RRRC may construct Safer Shelters by combining the four options (Sand and Cement, MS Pipe, Terracotta Tiles, Lime stabilized soil plaster on Bamboo mat etc.) of shelters.  

 The allocated land is not enough to accommodate 1,139,433 million Rohingya refugees (as of 31 May2025) in Cox’s Bazar and a small proportion of refugees live on private land for which they pay rent. In the absence of any regulatory framework to govern the private lands where the Rohingya refugees reside, the landlord-tenant relationship with refugees is mostly confirmed verbally without any paperwork. Rohingya refugees do not possess security of tenure in this kind of private accommodation, remaining vulnerable to threats, harassment and most importantly forced eviction due to multiple factors including landslides, rental increase and arbitrary rental arrangements. In 2023 alone, 825 eviction-related cases (19% of all reported HLP cases) were found. Usually, the cases of eviction are reported to different implementing partners by the victims as the Rohingya refugees have lack access to the formal justice mechanism. Further, these cases are managed by various legal partners who serve in the camps and the partners with the help of CiC attempt to resolve the dispute between the tenants and landlords. 

In December 2020, the Government started relocating registered Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, an island that was capacitated to accommodate a population of around one hundred thousand. The housing conditions of Rohingya refugees relocated in Bhasan Char are comparatively better than in Cox’s Bazar as instead of temporary emergency shelters, the refugees live in semi-structured buildings. However, the quality of the housing is not satisfactory, and due to the geographical location of the island, the refugees remain vulnerable to severe weather, particularly cyclones. 

• 1

  Section 2, The Citizenship Act, 1951 defined ‘alien’ as "“alien” means a person who is not a citizen of Bangladesh or a Commonwealth citizen;"

• 2

  Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project (EMCRP), Resettlement Policy Framework, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (January 2019), available at: https://dphe.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/dphe.portal.gov.bd/page/23471eb2_4fc7_4b55_92d1_0cb6e5d5e38d/RPF%28EMCRP%29.pdf

• 3

  Section 27 of the Forest Act, 1927 states, "Power to declare forest no longer reserved: 

  (1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that, from a date fixed by such notification, any forest or any portion thereof reserved under this Act shall cease to be a reserved forest. 

  (2) From the date so fixed, such forest or portion shall cease to be reserved; but the rights (if any) which have been extinguished therein shall not revive in consequence of such cessation."

• 4

  The Letter of the government has defined Safer Shelter as, "The model to be provided for fire and weather resilient shelters for Rohingyas will be called Safer Shelter."