On this page, you will find:

To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our Bangladesh LGBTQI+ Resources page.
For Bangladesh country of information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents visit our Bangladesh COI page. 

Refugee protection

Click here to see the numbers and origins of refugees hosted by Bangladesh. 

The following sections contain information on the most important international treaties and agreements of which Bangladesh is signatory, as well as national legislation relevant to the protection of refugees.

Bangladesh is a non-signatory of the UN 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. It has also not accepted the UN Statelessness Conventions. 

Despite this, Bangladesh has provided some form of international protection to refugees through the ratification of UN Human Rights Treaties, namely: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).  

 

Refugees are not accorded legal status under Bangladeshi law. There is no domestic law governing asylum procedures or refugee status determination. The Foreigners Act (1946) ‘which dates to the period before the establishment of the State of Bangladesh’ is applied to asylum seekers and refugees but makes no specific reference and offers no specific protections to either. 

The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees access to justice for everyone on its territory. It also determines that every person in Bangladesh enjoys the protection of the law and is entitled to be be treated in accordance with the law. However, because of the lack of comprehensive national framework on asylum, the matter is highly dependent on governmental administrative policies. 

 

Legal aid organisations

Website 
Facebook 
Address (Headquarters): 1/1, Pioneer Road, Kakrail, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: +88-02-8391970-2, +88-02-8317185, +88-02-8391973
Email: mail@blast.org.bd

BLAST provides legal advice and representation at all levels of the justice system, with an emphasis on providing services to those living in poverty or facing disadvantage or discrimination. Legal services, including mediation, litigation and legal rights training, are provided through BLAST’s head office and 19 unit offices across Bangladesh.

Organisations providing other support to refugees

Website 
Address:  684-686 Red Cresent Road, Wireless Railgate Bara Moghbazar, Dhaka 1217, Bangladesh
Tel: +375 (17) 263-84-17 (landline)
Email: info@redcross.by

Bangladesh Red Cross (BRC) provides asylum-seekers, people granted protection in Bangladesh humanitarian assistance (food and hygienic kits, if available in stock – secondhand clothing and footwear for children and adults), counseling on and facilitation of integration, referral to relevant state authorities for targeted assistance in accordance with their competence. BRC can also assist you to look for any missing family members.

Website
Address: House #13A, Road #136, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
Tel: +88 02 5504 4811 – 13 | +88 02 5504 4818 – 19

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) assists foreign citizens with assisted voluntary return to the countries of their origin as well as provides consultations on safe travel and stay abroad. 

In Bangladesh, due to the mass influx of Rohingya into its territory, IOM acts in partnership with other organisations in providing humanitarian support to migrants in the country. 

Website 
Address: Sawdagar Garden (4th Floor), Jatrabari, Dhaka-1236,Bangladesh.
Tel: +88-02-223338137
E-mail: okup.ent@gmail.com

OKUP is a community based migrant workers’ organization in Bangladesh. Believing in that the unity of migrant workers enhances their empowerment and contributes to the protection of their rights and dignity, OKUP came up as a platform of returnee migrant workers in 2004. 

The vision of OKUP is to create enabling environment for migrant workers across borders, and irrespective of gender and legal status. It works for promoting informed migration by choice, ending labour trafficking, forced labour and slavery.

It has demand-driven interventions for the migrant workers especially women at different stages of migration including safe migration awareness, need based supports and assistance to vulnerable and survivor returnee migrant workers. It provides intensive case management activities for social reintegration of the vulnerable migrant workers.

It also provides supports to establish local market-driven economic reintegration and sustainable livelihoods of the returnees, left behind families as well as climate induced migrants. 

Website  
Address: Motel Road (Probal), 4700 Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Tel.: 880 341 64380
Email: BGDCO@unhcr.org

UNHCR works to support the Government of Bangladesh to provide essential services and meet the protection needs of refugees, including special services for women, children and persons with disabilities. 

Bangladesh LGBTQI+ Resources

Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh COI

Find Bangladesh Country of Origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents. 

We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant resources, or you are aware of organisations and/or individuals to include in our directories, please get in touch.

Last updated May 2023