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Child Marriage in the Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh (28 photos)

In November, Getty Images photographer Allison Joyce spent time with several Rohingya families in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, as they prepared their young daughters for weddings, hoping to secure more food for them and their families. Joyce: “Early marriage is a common cultural practice within the Rohingya Muslim communities in Myanmar with child marriages being extremely common among the ethnic minority group. As over 620,000 Rohingya have fled their homes into neighboring Bangladesh since late August, food rations have reportedly been a major factor in the decision for families to marry off their children in the camps while UN officials warned that Rohingya children, especially those who were unaccompanied, are at great risk of being trafficked or forced into marriages. An investigation by the International Organization for Migration recently uncovered documented accounts of Rohingya girls as young as 11 getting married, and families at refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar are forcing their girls to marry early to reduce the number of mouths to feed and secure more food for themselves.”