Deep cuts to foreign humanitarian aid have plunged Rohingya children in Bangladesh’s refugee camps into a new crisis, forcing thousands out of classrooms and into early marriage, hazardous labor and human trafficking, according to families, aid workers and community leaders.

The funding reductions, triggered largely by the rollback of U.S. assistance and compounded by cuts from other donors, have shut down large numbers of learning centers, youth programs and child protection services across the camps that shelter around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

For many families, the loss of education has erased the last protective barrier standing between children and exploitation. Girls have been married off at alarming rates, often to shield them from insecurity, while boys as young as 10 have been pushed into exhausting and dangerous work to help their families survive.

Aid agencies warn that the situation has deteriorated sharply in 2025. UNICEF reports steep rises in child marriage, child labor, abductions and recruitment of children by armed groups operating in and around the camps. With schools closed and safe spaces gone, children are increasingly exposed to traffickers who lure them with promises of work or education abroad.

Community activists say the impact on girls has been especially severe. Rohingya women’s groups report a surge in forced marriages, domestic abuse and sexual exploitation following school closures. Once married, many girls are permanently cut off from education, even if learning centers reopen.

Boys, meanwhile, are being driven into street vending, waste collection and other forms of manual labor, often for a few dollars a day. Parents describe the choice as a desperate one, made amid fears that food rations could be reduced further in coming months.

Bangladesh restricts Rohingya refugees from working outside the camps, leaving families almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. With the overall Rohingya response only about half funded this year and agencies warning of deeper shortfalls ahead, uncertainty has become a defining feature of daily life.

The funding crisis has also fueled dangerous migration attempts. According to the UN refugee agency, hundreds of Rohingya many of them children have fled the camps by boat this year, risking their lives on smuggling routes toward Southeast Asia. A significant number have died or gone missing at sea.

Aid workers caution that reopening schools alone will not reverse the damage already done. Children who were married off, trafficked or forced into labor during the closures may never return to classrooms.

Humanitarian groups are urging donor governments to restore funding, warning that the cost of inaction will be measured not only in lost education, but in lost lives and futures.

“This is not just a funding gap,” said one Rohingya educator in the camps. “It is a generation being pushed into despair.”

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