Moving on the edge: climate change-induced hazards and the politics of (im)mobility in Rohingya refugee camps

Abstract

Climate change-induced hazards are increasingly shaping the vulnerabilities of refugee populations. However, the interplay between disaster governance and (im)mobility in camp-based settings remains underexplored. Through ethnographic engagement and interviews with refugees and humanitarian workers in the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh, this study reveals how site selection on fragile slopes, restrictions on durable infrastructure, and exclusion from protective infrastructures amplify hazard risks. Exacerbating these are securitization approaches, manifesting through fencing, surveillance, and restrictions on movement, mimicking forms of carceral humanitarianism. These practices immobilize refugees and constrain their ability to respond while failing to mitigate the very risks they are designed to address. Despite these barriers, refugees negotiate limited mobilities through kinship networks and volunteer-led evacuations, which provide temporary relief but also redistribute risks unevenly. Camps, therefore, institutionalize complex risk, where multiple vulnerabilities intersect with structural violence. Challenging the notion of camps as temporary solutions to be policed, the study calls for a more meaningful and equitable inclusion of refugees in host states’ disaster governance frameworks, National Adaptation Plans, and national and international climate finance strategies, and a reimagining of refugee protection in an era of climate crisis, where mobility and immobility are both politicized and precarious.