UNHCR Refugee Zakat Fund in Bangladesh: Sustainable religious funds for stateless refugees

This chapter analyzes the UNHCR Refugee Zakat Fund and the use of Islamic Social Welfare Instruments as a tool for supporting the refugee issue. Looking at the Refugee Zakat Fund from a legal and practical perspective, the research will try to understand the experience of this international non-Muslim organization in managing religious funds for Muslim refugees. The study will address the following research questions: why and how does UNHCR use those funds in different contexts? Are zakat and sadaqat a sustainable solution for addressing the social protection of refugees? The religious component of donations can improve the predictability and continuity of these funds, filling the gap in humanitarian financing to address the refugee issue. However, the political sustainability of the refugee response should be considered as a key element in the analysis of these funds in each context. This chapter observes the case of Bangladesh, where almost 1 million stateless Rohingya refugees are dependent on humanitarian assistance and have no chance of integration in the country.