Dr Matiur Rahman

 As World Refugee Day is observed on June 20, 2025, the international community confronts a sobering reality: the world is undergoing an era of unprecedented displacement. With over 122 million individuals forcibly uprooted due to conflict, persecution, and climate disasters, the theme of this year’s commemoration—“Solidarity with Refugees” and its complementary notion “Community as a Superpower”—demands more than rhetorical sympathy.

 It urges a rigorous, theoretically grounded interrogation of the systemic drivers of displacement and a call to mobilise collective action, not only for relief but also for structural transformation. In this context, Bangladesh serves as a critical case study, both as a frontline humanitarian actor and a nation grappling with its structural vulnerabilities.

 The phenomenon of forced displacement must be understood not as an episodic crisis but through the structural lens of conflict theory, which locates the roots of displacement in global inequalities, power asymmetries, and historical injustices. Ongoing civil wars and ethnic violence in countries like Myanmar and Sudan have led to a sharp escalation in refugee flows. In particular, the Rohingya crisis has placed Bangladesh at the centre of one of the most protracted and geopolitically entangled humanitarian challenges of the 21st century.

 Since 2017, Bangladesh has hosted nearly a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, a population rendered stateless by deliberate policies of marginalisation and ethnic exclusion. For Bangladesh, this is not simply a humanitarian issue—it is a challenge that intersects with national resource constraints, environmental degradation, security concerns, and regional geopolitics.

 Moreover, the crisis is compounded by an equally devastating driver of displacement: climate change. Through the lens of climate change theory, one can discern how increasingly frequent and severe environmental shocks—such as cyclones, riverbank erosion, saline intrusion, and flash floods—are generating internal displacement on a massive scale.

 Bangladesh’s geographic and demographic realities make it disproportionately vulnerable. The convergence of these dual forces—political violence and ecological vulnerability—has situated Bangladesh in a unique position: both a host to externally displaced populations and a generator of internally displaced citizens.

 Understanding the plight of refugees in 2025 also necessitates a systems-based analysis. Systems theory elucidates how forced displacement operates within a web of interlinked social, political, and economic subsystems. The shrinking of humanitarian space, coupled with acute funding shortfalls, is symptomatic of a broader dysfunction within the global refugee protection regime. These are not isolated challenges—they reveal a systematic erosion of multilateral solidarity and commitment.

 For Bangladesh, this manifests most acutely in the diminishing support for the Rohingya response. Critical services—such as food aid, healthcare, shelter, and education—have been drastically curtailed due to donor fatigue and shifting geopolitical priorities. International organisations, such as UNHCR and WFP, are struggling to maintain even the most basic levels of support in the face of budget cuts. This results in heightened vulnerability, particularly for women, children, and persons with disabilities, and exacerbates the potential for radicalisation, trafficking, and social unrest. The refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar now symbolise not only humanitarian need but also the fragility of global governance structures.

 Concurrently, the social constructionist perspective highlights how discourses around refugees are actively shaped by political rhetoric, media framing, and societal biases. Refugees are often portrayed as security threats or economic burdens rather than as rights-bearing individuals. In many host contexts, including Bangladesh, the prolonged presence of refugees has generated friction with host communities, especially in areas already marked by poverty and resource scarcity.

 Although the Government of Bangladesh has shown extraordinary generosity, the absence of legal refugee status and formal rights for the Rohingya perpetuates their marginalisation. It inhibits the potential for meaningful integration or autonomy.

This year’s emphasis on solidarity must be understood through the prism of critical social theory, which moves beyond charity to interrogate the structures of domination that render populations vulnerable in the first place. True solidarity does not paternalistically “help” refugees; it recognises their agency, their histories, and their right to participate in decisions about their lives. It demands a shift from transactional aid to transformational justice.

 Within this framework, the idea of “Community as a Superpower” finds theoretical support in communitarian ethics, which posit that sustainable solutions to displacement are often rooted in the social capital of local communities. Bangladesh has, to its credit, mobilised enormous community resources in responding to the Rohingya influx. Yet, this informal social solidarity must be institutionalised through policies that provide refugees with access to education, livelihood opportunities, and legal protections, without compromising the welfare of the host community.

 A sustainable refugee response must rest on three interdependent pillars: protection, inclusion, and durable solutions. A rights-based approach calls for the recognition of refugees’ fundamental rights to safety, dignity, and participation. While voluntary repatriation remains the preferred solution for the Rohingya population, this is contingent upon fundamental changes in Myanmar, including restoration of citizenship rights, dismantling of apartheid policies, and the establishment of a secure and dignified environment.

 Bangladesh has been vocal in multilateral forums, advocating for greater international responsibility-sharing and a robust framework for repatriation. Yet, the lack of tangible progress has exposed the limits of diplomatic appeals in the absence of geopolitical will. Thus, the role of peace and conflict studies becomes paramount, offering tools to address the root causes of displacement through conflict resolution, transitional justice, and inclusive peace-building.

 At the same time, the global governance system must be reimagined to distribute responsibility more equitably. High-income countries must expand their resettlement quotas, support host countries through predictable financing, and adopt asylum policies that align with international human rights standards. The international community cannot continue to rely on countries like Bangladesh, Lebanon, and Uganda to shoulder a disproportionate share of the global displacement burden.

 While macro-level reforms are essential, global citizenship theory reminds us that individuals also play a critical role in shaping a more inclusive world. Advocacy, awareness-raising, volunteering, and financial contributions all represent meaningful acts of solidarity. Listening to refugee narratives, challenging xenophobic discourses, and pressing policymakers for rights-based solutions are not peripheral gestures—they are central to a just refugee response.

 On this World Refugee Day, solidarity must be reclaimed not as a symbolic act but as a praxis—an ethical commitment to dismantling the systems that produce displacement and to building a world where safety, dignity, and hope are not privileges but universal rights. For Bangladesh, the road ahead is fraught with complexity.

 But in its humanitarian resilience lies a powerful lesson for the world: that even in the face of immense structural constraints, compassion and courage can be a superpower—if matched by action. Without renewed global solidarity, however, Bangladesh’s extraordinary efforts risk becoming both unsustainable and unrewarded.

 Let World Refugee Day 2025 serve as a turning point—where discourse transforms into action, where solidarity becomes structural, and where displaced lives are no longer suspended in limbo, but are empowered to shape their futures.

The writer is a researcher and development worker.