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Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, is the world’s largest refugee camp.
It’s a cramped place with inhumane living conditions, still home for close to a million people who fled violence in Myanmar.

On one corner of the camp stands IFRC Emergency Field Hospital.
This is how the everyday life rolled there in May 2018.

(The hospital is currently run by Bangladesh Red Crescent.)



There's a team of six men, called Strong Men, working in the Field Hospital. Their responsibility is to securely lift and move the patients whenever needed. The members of the team work 12 hours a day and wish that people would understand the importance of their work better. View to one corner of the Kutupalong camp. A three months old baby Mohammod, resting on his mother's lap, had high fever and was brought to Red Cross Red Crescent Field Hospital to get treatment. Habib's work is to support staff living in the hospital compound and take care example that they have clean bedsheets. Mohammad was accompanying his brother to the Field Hospital, but broke his hand one day when playing football, becoming a patient by himself. Daily staff meeting at 7:30 AM. A day old twin being fed by a Red Crescent nurse in the Field Hospital. The mother of the twins, who already had three kids, didn't know that she was expecting two babies. Residents of Kutupalong camp making their way through a sudden rainstorm. Rain makes the pathways very slippery, often causing people to fall and injure themselves. It also increases the likelihood of landslides. X-ray technician Miia Eklund, nurse Labani Barai and doctor Kimmo Maaranniitty discussing what would be the best way to take an x-ray of Hasina's fractured hand. Anowara is a mother of five. Her youngest one, Kulsum, in her arms, was born two months prematurely in the Field Hospital. The baby weighed only 1475 grams but miraculously passed the critical stage and is now, at 26 days old, ready to leave the hospital and move home to the nearby Thangkali camp. Nurse Mohabbot Hossain opening the plaster cast of a young patient. The casts are made out of calcium, which is rather an old-fashioned way to do it, but it's cost-effective. The only problem is that in wet and unclean environment it gets dirty and soft pretty fast and needs to be replaced with a new one. Field Hospital's technical team members, Juhim and Alijuhar, preparing to make concrete tiles. The Field Hospital has a spesific tent for psychosocial support (PSS). It's meant both for the patients and their relatives. Kids find it nice, as it offers a safe place example to draw, play or just to relax. Yesthehara, Sufaira and two Mohammads decided it was time to swing. A young boy called Noor being prepared for an x-ray of his injured hand.


Emergency Field Hospital Operations In Cox’s Bazar / Bangladesh 2018 / for Finnish Red Cross
© Saara Mansikkamäki 2025