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| Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department | |
|---|---|
| Name | Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department |
| Type | Governmental agency |
| Headquarters | Dhaka |
| Formed | 1971 |
| Jurisdiction | Bangladesh |
Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department is a statutory body responsible for coordinating relief, resettlement, and rehabilitation for displaced populations in Bangladesh. The agency operates at the intersection of humanitarian responses to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, cross-border crises involving Rohingya people, and domestic displacement from natural disasters such as Cyclone Sidr and River erosion in Bangladesh. It liaises with international actors including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and multilateral donors such as the World Bank.
The department traces its origins to emergency arrangements after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War when transitional relief was coordinated alongside actors like the Bangladesh Armed Forces, the Awami League, and humanitarian groups including Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the 1990s and 2000s, responses to flood crises involving the Bangladesh Water Development Board overlapped with programs run by United Nations Development Programme and USAID. The large-scale influx of the Rohingya people from Rakhine State after events linked to the 2017 Myanmar crackdown led to expanded mandates, memoranda with the UNHCR, coordination with the Bangladesh Police and the Border Guard Bangladesh, and engagement with regional forums such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
Statutory functions include coordination of emergency shelter, food assistance, and long-term resettlement in collaboration with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and local administrations like the Dhaka District. It develops contingency planning with agencies such as the Department of Public Health Engineering, facilitates registration tied to identity systems like the National Identity Card (Bangladesh), and supports health initiatives alongside the World Health Organization. The department administers site management linked to actors such as Cox's Bazar District authorities, integrates with cash-transfer programs financed by the Asian Development Bank, and aligns rehabilitation efforts with the Ministry of Social Welfare and programs by UNICEF.
The department is organized into divisions reflecting operational, coordination, and policy roles, including a Central Relief Division, Camp Management Unit, and Rehabilitation Planning Cell. Key interfaces include liaison offices with the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union External Action Service, and donor missions of the United States Agency for International Development. Field operations are nested within divisional commissioners and coordinate with entities such as the District Commissioner (Bangladesh), the Local Government Engineering Department, and civil society organizations including BRAC, Grameen Bank, and Ain o Salish Kendra.
Programs encompass emergency shelter programs modeled after standards from the Sphere Project, nutrition interventions aligned with Global Nutrition Cluster guidance, water and sanitation projects coordinated with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene cluster, and education-in-emergencies partnerships with Save the Children and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. Services include registration services with support from UNHCR biometric initiatives, psychosocial support in collaboration with Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, and livelihood training linked to the International Labour Organization and microfinance partners like Grameen Bank. Site maintenance and infrastructure projects often involve contracting with the Local Government Division and coordination with the Bangladesh Army engineering brigades for road and bridge works.
Funding derives from national budget allocations approved by the Ministry of Finance (Bangladesh) and from external donors including the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, bilateral partners such as the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the European Commission, and philanthropic organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Strategic partnerships include memoranda of understanding with the UNHCR, the IOM, non-governmental implementers like ActionAid, and academic collaborations with institutions such as the University of Dhaka and BRAC University for monitoring and evaluation.
Operations are governed by national instruments including statutes administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, disaster management rules linked to the Disaster Management Act (Bangladesh), and regulations that interact with international instruments such as the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Policy frameworks require coordination with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for legal protections and with the Election Commission Bangladesh when registration data intersects with civil documentation systems.
The department faces operational constraints from limited fiscal space sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance (Bangladesh), bureaucratic contestation involving the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and the Ministry of Home Affairs, and logistical hurdles in dense sites like Cox's Bazar. Critiques from organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and policy analysts at the Chatham House highlight concerns over access, protection of vulnerable groups, and adherence to international norms. Additional challenges include coordination frictions with the Bangladesh Police, environmental impacts noted by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and donor conditionalities imposed by entities such as the International Monetary Fund.
Category:Humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh