of their representativeness or legitimacy in refugee communities but because they could speak Bengali. The JRP suggests that the government might be moving towards a more standard approach to camp management as implemented by UNHCR in other refugee situations, which involves refugee electing their representatives. Originally set up by the Bangladeshi security forces in response to the influx of Rohingya refugees in the early 1990s, the majhi system was abandoned in 2007 and revived in 2017. The mechanism has been controversial in part because it directly replicated the top-down, unaccountable leadership systems used in Myanmar. The majhis are unpaid posts responsible for liaising between individual refugees and the CiCs, and to a lesser extent aid agencies. In that sense, they can be influential given their mandate and their privileged access to CiCs. The majhis also have de facto control over aid distributions, leading to perceptions of corruption. Speaking in a focus group discussion, the leader of one Rohingya community group told the study that ‘the majhi system is the worst of our community. Block the majhi government system!’ Other civil society structures include: • • • 24 A UN camp management system piloted by UNHCR and IOM, with the engagement of the government. The aim is to replace the majhi system, and have individuals elected by refugees to support camp management. Politically oriented community groups, including diaspora groups and newer activist groups. Diaspora and diaspora-linked groups within the camps aim to maintain a degree of influence through funding activities and providing assistance within the camps. Newer activist groups appear to be more grassroots, with a focus on organising refugees around key issues. These more nascent groups are in direct competition with diaspora groups over influence and resources. Not all of them are perceived to be in touch with the realities of refugee life in Bangladesh, or to share the interests of ‘new’ refugees. More traditional community groups involved in service provision or addressing particular needs (such as education, the delivery of humanitarian assistance or women’s empowerment). Their objectives are somewhat less political than others. There are also reports of armed political groups and criminal groups, which compete for influence and economic power (Lewis et al., 2019). These groups are characterised by their fluidity, and the lines between them can be blurred. The fragmented nature of community leadership among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh mirrors similar patterns in other Rohingya refugee settings. Competition and mistrust were, for instance, a feature of Rohingya community-based organisations’ relationships and interactions in Kuala Lumpur (Wake, 2016), as issues and tensions from Myanmar continued to affect community relationships in Malaysia. The research found that the more grassroots community and diaspora groups were better connected (compared to the majhis) to the outside world, donors and NGOs. In that sense, they appeared to be more powerful and influential than the majhi structure and had a much wider network and longer reach outside the camps. The majhis, by contrast, must go through the CiCs to reach aid agencies, donors and others. During a focus group discussion with majhis, it was clear that their first channel of communication was from the refugees to the CiCs, which they referred to during the discussion as ‘the military’. Running in parallel, more grassroots community groups seem to have developed direct contacts with stakeholders within and outside the camps and appear to have coalesced around issues such as human rights and justice in Myanmar, or organising protests around aid provision or return issues. It was unclear the extent to which these groups are imposing their agendas on refugees, in particular pushing the idea of return to Myanmar or maintaining conservative religious norms, and not allowing refugees to voice other positions. A recent article on the rise of politically minded Rohingya groups in the Bangladesh camps explains how the political awakening has been accompanied by a surge in violence, with militants and religious conservatives also vying for power, more than a dozen refugees told Reuters. They described increasing fear in the camps, where armed men have stormed shelters at night, kidnapped critics and warned women against breaking conservative Islamic norms (Lewis et al., 2019). Uncertain futures: Rohingya refugees’ perspectives on their displacement in Bangladesh