Rohingya youth turn to football for hope inside refugee camps
Football league in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar refugee camps offers Rohingya youth structure, unity, and rare sense of normalcy amid years of displacement
DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — In refugee camps better known globally for overcrowding, aid shortages, and prolonged uncertainty, a football tournament is offering Rohingya youth something rare: structure, purpose, and a brief escape from life in limbo.
The Rohingya Football League 2025–26 was inaugurated on January 14 inside the world’s largest refugee settlement in southeastern Bangladesh, where more than one million Rohingya refugees have lived since fleeing military violence in Myanmar.
The tournament is being held across camps in Ukhiya, part of the Cox’s Bazar district, an area that has become synonymous with one of the world’s most protracted refugee crises.
The league was launched by Bangladesh’s Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, with support from humanitarian partners working inside the camps. Officials, aid workers, and Rohingya community members attended the opening ceremony at a camp football ground, marking the start of weeks of scheduled matches involving teams drawn from multiple camps.
For young Rohingya men and boys, formal education opportunities, employment prospects, and organized recreation remain extremely limited. Years of displacement have left many adolescents growing up entirely within the camps, with few outlets for physical activity or leadership development.
Humanitarian officials say sports initiatives like the football league aim to counter isolation, frustration, and social tensions that can emerge in long-term displacement settings.
Organizers say the league is designed not simply as a sporting event but as a community-building exercise. By bringing together teams from different camps, the tournament seeks to encourage discipline, teamwork, and peaceful interaction among youth who otherwise live in tightly restricted environments.
For many young players, the pitch represents more than a game. It is one of the few spaces in camp life where hope, however brief, feels tangible.
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