By Khulood Fatafta
When food supplies run out at Sayed Amin’s home in Camp 14 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the next round of assistance has yet to arrive. He then turns to borrowing from his neighbours to meet the needs of his eight-member family, repaying what he owes once the next ration arrives.
“We have to borrow in order to keep going. I go to our neighbours and ask them to lend me some basic necessities,” Amin says.
Around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, most of them in the camps of Cox’s Bazar.
Since April 2026, the World Food Programme (WFP) has implemented a new food assistance system based on each household’s level of need. The households with the greatest needs receive the equivalent of $12 per person per month, compared with $10 for households with lower levels of need and $7 for those classified at the lowest level of need.
The UN agency said the reduction was an urgent necessity to adapt to the scarcity of international resources, which had fallen to their lowest levels in recent years, making it impossible to maintain the previous rations and threatening the long-term stability of assistance.
Five Days of Food
Amin, 54, says some food items, particularly fresh foods, last his family only about five days, forcing him to look for other ways to meet the family’s needs for the rest of the month.
“After that, we face a long period covering the remaining 25 days of the month, during which I have to look for other ways to provide for us,” he says.
His family receives rice, oil, lentils, onions, garlic and spices, along with limited quantities of chicken and fish.
When some items run out, he borrows from neighbours, but the borrowing quickly becomes a burden on the next round of assistance.
“Continuing to borrow places a heavy burden on us because, in the end, we have to repay what we borrowed. This means part of the following month’s assistance is used up before the month actually begins,” he says.
Borrowing is not limited to food. It also covers clothing, education and medicine when one of the children falls ill. Amin says employment opportunities inside the camp are extremely limited and subject to strict restrictions and monitoring.
Work Is Not Enough to Repay the Debt
In the same camp, Amina Khatun, 40, lives with ten members of her family.
Her husband is unable to work because of health problems affecting his eyes and chronic chest problems. Amina, meanwhile, gets intermittent work opportunities that may be two, five or six months apart and last only a few days.
Amina works as a volunteer with a disaster management unit for a monthly allowance of 2,500 taka, about $20. However, she says her family needs around 7,000 taka a month, or about $57, to cover its needs, while she also bears the education costs of five children.
“When my income is not enough to cover our expenses and we cannot find any other source of assistance, our situation becomes extremely difficult and I have no choice but to borrow,” she says.
Her family currently owes between 10,000 and 20,000 taka, approximately $80 to $160, with most of the debt stemming from urgent medical needs.
Amina says the lack of employment opportunities makes it difficult to repay the debt and increases her concerns about her children’s future.
Debt Extends to Shops
Borrowing does not stop with neighbours. It also extends to shops inside the camp, where daily necessities turn into deferred debts.
Mohammad Shafiq, a shop owner in the same camp, says families buy basic items such as oil, onions, lentils, garlic and spices on credit, with some debts remaining unpaid for between a week and 15 days.
“You could say that about five out of every ten customers buy on credit,” Shafiq says, stressing that the estimate is based on his daily dealings with customers and is not an official statistic.
He says some customers accumulate debts from one month to the next, reaching as much as 6,000 taka, about $49, in some cases.
He also notes that households with “only one person able to work” are more likely to fall behind on repayments.
Funding Pressures
These individual debts come amid growing pressure on the humanitarian response for Rohingya refugees, as funding gaps continue to threaten the ability of relief programmes to meet basic needs.
In February 2026, the World Food Programme announced that it faced a $147 million funding gap for life-saving food and nutrition programmes for the Rohingya.
In May 2026, the United Nations and its partners appealed for $710.5 million to meet the most urgent needs of Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh.
Between limited food assistance and scarce employment opportunities, debt has become a way for some families to bridge the gap between the assistance they receive and what they need for food, medicine, education and clothing. At the same time, however, it consumes part of their future resources, leaving families to begin each month carrying the burden of the previous month’s debt.
