Missing From a U.N. Meeting on Helping Refugees? The Refugees.

They live in the world’s largest collection of refugee camps, which they are rarely allowed to leave. Their shops there have been bulldozed and their schools closed. In their homeland, warring factions seem to agree only on a shared contempt for the stateless exiles.

Eight years after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled ethnic cleansing in their native Myanmar, they continue to languish in Bangladesh. On Tuesday, world leaders and activists will convene a high-profile gathering on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss a road map for repatriating them.

But no Rohingya from the camps will be present.

“They will be taking decisions about our lives,” said Showkutara, a Rohingya leader from the camps who goes by one name. “So why can’t we go?”

The Rohingya in Bangladesh, who were stripped of their citizenship in Myanmar, have no means of arranging their own travel outside the camps. In the past, the United Nations and the Bangladeshi government have sponsored trips for some to represent their community on the world stage. But no such support came ahead of Tuesday’s conference.

Amid difficulties in obtaining U.S. visas, issuing travel permits for stateless refugees, deciding who should go and ensuring their safety, the Bangladeshi government decided not to pursue a path for Rohingya in the camps to attend the conference. “We looked at all of this and then we didn’t try,” said Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh’s high representative for the Rohingya issue.

“Nobody could be sure if we would be able to go through all these hoops,” he said.

While there will be diaspora Rohingya from Western countries at the conference, Ms. Showkutara said she had a hard time feeling represented by them. “They haven’t spent a single night in the camps,” she said. “How can they explain our situation to the world?”