An Agenda for a Dignified and Sustainable Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh community-based initiatives and decision-making processes from which they have traditionally been excluded.76 Rohingya refugees are best placed to conduct these activities due to their knowledge of the Rohingya language and high trust levels with their own community. Their engagement also makes it easier to disseminate information and collect feedback on the humanitarian response. As Rohingya refugees do not have access to formal education and employment in Bangladesh,77 volunteer work in the camps enhances their sense of purpose and agency and contributes towards camp security and stability. Small cash stipends earned through volunteer work allow them to supplement the food assistance provided by the humanitarian community and also help endure any other economic shocks. In September 2019, the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB)78 issued an order prohibiting cash-based programmes in the camps and prioritising the hiring of Bangladeshi nationals in the Rohingya refugee response instead of Rohingya refugees. As per Bangladeshi authorities, these measures were taken to stop the Rohingya from using cash for illicit activities such as securing fake identity documents.79 Since 2019, the humanitarian community has advocated with Bangladeshi authorities to continue volunteer and cash-based programming in the camps given the critical need for Rohingya volunteers to deliver life-saving assistance in the camps. As negotiations were ongoing and the modalities for volunteer programmes were being finalised, these activities continued with caution. Rohingya volunteers played a particularly important role during COVID-19 when the humanitarian presence in the camps was significantly reduced. It must be noted that thousands of Bangladeshi volunteers also support the humanitarian response and receive higher stipends than Rohingya volunteers. This is in addition to the employment of Bangladeshi nationals as staff of humanitarian agencies serving in the response, who constitute a large majority of humanitarian workers in Cox’s Bazar district. After long negotiations on the scope of refugee volunteer work in the response, a recent Government directive80 has restricted the recruitment of Rohingya refugees in all sectors except as sanitation workers and night guards and limited the scope of cash-for-work programmes. 3.2.1.3 Barbed-wire fencing Rohingya refugees’ freedom of movement is restricted due to a government policy of encampment. Some Bangladeshi authorities have stated that ‘the main objective of erecting the fences is to ensure that the Rohingyas do not leave the camp and join our community’.81 76 Kaamil Ahmed, Cash ban stokes worry among Rohingya volunteers, The New Humanitarian, 17 December 2019, at https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2019/12/17/Rohingya-cash-World-Vision-livelihoods-education-refugeesWFP 77 Ibid. 78NGOAB Framework for NGOs, 23 September 2019, available at http://ngoab.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/ngoab.portal.gov.bd/notices/7158baa6_dac4_4f3b_8ff1_9ef680d32f71 /Framework-for%20NGOs.pdf 79 Kaamil Ahmed, supra n. 76. 80 Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, Govt decides to regulate all Rohingya recruitment, Dhaka Tribune, 3 March 2021, available at https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/rohingya-crisis/2021/03/03/govt-decides-to-regulate-all-rohingyarecruitment 81 Arifur Rahman Rabbi, Home minister: Barbed wire fencing underway around Rohingya camps, Dhaka Tribune, 15 February 2020, available at https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/rohingya-crisis/2020/02/15/home-minister-barbed-wirefencing-underway-around-rohingya-camps 24 Act for Peace / May 2021