A/HRC/15/55* E. Rohingya refugees12 31. The Government and the people of Bangladesh have shown great hospitality to Rohingya refugees over the past decades. In collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other partners, the Government has taken important measures to improve the situation of registered refugees residing in camps. However, despite recent improvements in the conditions of the camps, registered refugees do not fully enjoy freedom of movement, the right to work or the right to education, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. 32. The independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty visited Cox’s Bazaar and the Kutupalong camp, and met with groups of refugees, local authorities, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner and civil society organizations working in the area. The expert was concerned at the overcrowded conditions in the camps and the deplorable living conditions for those living immediately outside them. While 28,000 refugees live in the camps, the Government estimates that between 200,000 and 400,000 unregistered refugees live nearby. The unregistered refugees do not have adequate food or shelter, nor access to basic services, including sanitation, safe drinking water and health care. The experts are particularly concerned by recent civil society reports on the worsening conditions of unregistered refugees.13 33. The experts understand that the Government of Bangladesh has limited resources, which prevents it comprehensively addressing all of the needs of refugees coming from Myanmar. However, until a sustainable solution is identified, the Government must ensure livelihood opportunities and progressively ensure access to basic services, such as sanitation, safe drinking water, health care and education. The Government and the international community should ensure that any assistance provided to the communities does not discriminate on the basis of nationality, but rather results in those who are most in need of assistance receiving it, so as to prevent tensions between the refugee and host communities. The experts also encourage the Government to consider a system for identifying and registering unregistered Rohingyas. They note that protection of the Rohingya does not lie solely with the Government of Bangladesh, and therefore call upon the international community to step up efforts to ensure protection and to seek durable solutions. IV. General challenges regarding the elimination of extreme poverty and ensuring access to sanitation and water 34. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the economic growth experienced in recent decades has contributed to a decline in the incidence of income poverty from 59 per cent of the population in 1990 to 40 per cent in 2005.14 Nonetheless, in 2005, an estimated 35 million Bangladeshis still were living below the extreme poverty line.15 Climatic shocks and rising 12 13 14 15 GE.10-15451 The information contained in this section was prepared by the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty. See Médecins sans Frontières, “Violent crackdown fuels humanitarian crisis for unrecognized Rohingya refugees”, 18 February 2010, and Physicians for Human Rights, “Stateless and starving: persecuted Rohingya flee Burma and starve in Bangladesh”, 2010. World Bank, “Poverty assessment for Bangladesh: creating opportunities and bridging the East-West divide”, Bangladesh Development Series, 2008, p. XVI. Ibid., p. 2. 9