The Duchess of Edinburgh has visited the Rohingya refugee camps at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh to see the support being offered to displaced people from Myanmar. Sophie spent Tuesday, 10 November, hearing about efforts to help women and girls, as part of her commitment to the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the UK's Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.

The visit was the second day of a three-day trip to Bangladesh, undertaken at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Sophie arrived in the country on Monday, 9 November.

What Sophie saw in the camps

Sophie met children living in Camp 4 and learnt about their education and experiences. She visited a UNICEF learning centre and travelled to a Women and Girls' Safe Space, run by the International Organisation for Migration. She also toured a soap factory within the camps run by the Programme for Helpless and Lagged Societies, a Cox's Bazar-based organisation working with Rohingya refugees and vulnerable host communities.

She also visited an assistive device repair workshop run by Humanity and Inclusion in Camp 4, which supports people with disabilities. The duchess told Rohingya refugees in the camps that “we won't walk away” after hearing about the hardships they face.

The soap factory is one of the livelihood projects in the camps, giving women a way to earn an income and build skills in a setting where access to formal work is restricted. The learning centre and safe space offer children education and women a place to meet, seek advice and take part in community activities.

Why the visit matters

Since 2017, more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees have fled persecution and violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State to find shelter in the densely populated camps in Cox's Bazar, the world's largest refugee settlement. The visit aimed to show how livelihood programmes can strengthen Rohingya women's economic empowerment and self-reliance, where access to formal work is restricted.

The camps have now existed for almost a decade, and aid agencies have repeatedly warned that funding shortfalls and restricted opportunities make daily life harder for families, particularly for women and children. Visits by senior figures are used to draw attention to those pressures and to the work of local organisations supporting refugees and host communities.

On the first day of her trip, Sophie met women peacekeepers at the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training and met young athletes, including girls and young women who play hockey. The Duchess has long championed the Women, Peace and Security agenda, which calls for women to be involved in peacebuilding and for survivors of sexual violence in conflict to receive support and justice.