Country Information

The population of Bangladesh is approximately 152.6 million.  98% of the country’s population is Bengalis; the other 2 percent are composed of tribal groups and non-Bengalis.  The majority of the Bangladeshi people are Muslim (about 83%) with the Hindu religion being practiced by about 16 percent of the population.  

Political and Economic Environment

Following an intense civil war, the state of Pakistan separated into two parts.  As a result, Bangladesh became an independent state in 1971 when Bengali East Pakistan seceded from its amalgamation with West Pakistan. After the partition of 1947, the Biharis (an Urdu-speaking Muslim minority originally from the Hindu region of Bihar) became a part of East Pakistan, but their past support for Western Pakistan caused tension between the Bihari and the newly independent nation of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has refused to provide full citizenship to the Bihari due to their previous support of Western Pakistan while Pakistan, on the other hand, fears the large influx of Biharis into Pakistan could destabilize the region.
After fifteen years of military rule, a parliamentary democracy was reinstated in 1990.  The legal system in Bangladesh, based on English common law, consists of three branches of government:  executive, legislative, and judicial.  The current president of Bangladesh, Iajuddin Ahmed, has mainly a ceremonial post, but would play a major role in government affairs if the parliament is dissolved. The present prime minister in Bangladesh is Kahleda Zia, who plays a decisive role in both domestic and foreign affairs of the country.

Although Zia’s government has been able to address some economic and environmental issues, it has yet to create a society responsive to law and order. The political environment is marked by instability and corruption.  Persistent hostility exists between the Awami League, which ruled until the end of its term in July 2001, and the present leaders composing the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.  The source of the tensions and hostility are primarily personal differences rather than ideological ones. There is international concern about Bangladesh’s human rights record.  Lawlessness within the country has led to a variety of allegations ranging from assault on women to the use of torture by the police against those detained.

Since its independence from West Pakistan, Bangladesh has yet to show significant economic progress.  It is an incredibly poor, densely populated nation, with most of its citizens crowded into a delta of rivers, emptying into the Bay of Bengal.  The agricultural sector is the predominant employer of Bangladeshis, with rice as its primary harvest.  Unfortunately, many Bangladeshis are unable to find jobs in agriculture and thus migrate abroad in search of employment, often through illegal channels.  The severe monsoon storms, common to the region, often lead to overwhelming floods in Bangladesh, hindering growth in the agriculture sector. Pressing economic issues are often delayed by political infighting and corruption prevalent within all government levels.  

Humanitarian Situation

The majority of refugees in Bangladesh are ethnic Rohingya from Burma’s Rakhine State. The Muslim Rohingya allege humanitarian and religious persecution by the government of Burma. About 250,000 of them fled to Bangladesh in the early 1990s. At first the Bangladeshis welcomed the refugees, but over the years the government of Bangladesh has become reluctant to harbor the refugees for fear of a pull factor. Many of the 250,000 Burmese that first came to Bangladesh have been forcibly repatriated to Burma. By the end of 2004, fewer than 20,000 individuals remained from the original group, the majority of them are living in two refugee camps in southern Bangladesh.

In addition to the Rohingya in the camps, there are a large number of Rohingya outside the camps. These are primarily people who have been fleeing to Bangladesh, after the mass exodus of the early 1990s, as a result of ongoing discrimination and persecution by Burmese authorities. The government of Bangladesh continues to recognize only the 20,000 camp-based Rohingya as refugees, while the unofficial number of Rohingya refugees in the country may be closer to 200,000. Bangladesh does not want to bear the burden of caring for the Rohingya living outside the camps and does not give them refugee status.

In late 2005, humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh feared a major new Rohingya refugee exodus due to a food crisis in northern Rakhine State caused by a bad harvest, high rice prices and difficulties in transporting rice as a result of government-imposed restrictions.

Similarly, it is estimated that between 240,000 and 300,000 Bihari live in about 66 camps in Bangladesh. These overcrowded and bleak environments quickly become unfit for human habitation. It is common to find hundreds of people sharing two ground wells or a single latrine. People often share living quarters with immediate family, extended family, and sometimes animals in spaces as small as eight by ten feet. These conditions lend themselves to sickness and the spread of disease. In addition to wretched living conditions, as stateless people the Bihari lack important identification documents. Without these records, the Bihari are locked out of job or education opportunities, which are essential for social and economic mobility.

Finally, according to the Global IDP Project, more than 500,000 people may be internally displaced in Bangladesh due to religious persecution and conflict over property. Bangladesh’s Hindu minority population has been steadily diminishing due to repressive policies. At the time of the creation of Bangladesh, 25 percent of the population was Hindu. Today, the Hindu population is less than 10 percent. Many people also continue to be displaced in the aftermath of a decade long conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts between the Bengali and tribal populations.


Updated June 2006