DHAKA: The UAE's Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organizations’ Affairs, Yacoub Al-Hosani, visited the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district on Friday.
The minister was accompanied by Kevin Allen, head of UNHCR emergency operations for the Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh, as he toured the UAE-funded nutrition center run by the UNHCR.
The UAE has donated $2 million to assist UNHCR activities, especially for the nutritional needs of the Rohingyas.
Al-Hosani was briefed by the UNHCR’s nutrition expert during the visit. The visit is seen as the start of cooperation between the UAE and UNHCR in the nutrition program, which will cover the need of 132,700 Rohingya refugees including 78,000 women and children.
“The situation of Rohingya refugees is very difficult, especially those women and children who suffer from malnutrition,” Al-Hosani said.
He reiterated UAE’s commitment to continuous support for the refugees.
“The UAE will increase support to UNHCR, the UN agencies, and all humanitarian organizations, to help provide assistance and relief to the Rohingya refugees. This is a big task and all your efforts are much appreciated,” Al-Hosani said.
Fairas Al-Khateeb, the UNHCR spokesperson in Cox’s Bazar, said it was confident of running the nutrition program for the next “couple of months” with the funds they had.
“We have established 22 nutrition centers in the refugee camp areas to provide nutrition support to the refugees,” he told Arab News. “In addition, UNHCR has established 10 recovery centers dedicated to children who are suffering from acute malnutrition.”
An estimated one in every five Rohingya refugee child in Bangladesh is suffering from acute malnutrition. The last nutrition survey conducted by the UNHCR at the end of 2017 showed that the overall global acute malnutrition rate for refugee children in Bangladesh was 18.2 percent, almost 4 percent of whom were suffering from acute malnutrition.
“We provide the Rohingya with a very special nutritious food package which is prescribed by the World Health Organization,” Al-Khateeb said. The package contains milk, vegetables and other food items.
Al-Hosani thanked the government of Bangladesh and its people for their generosity in hosting the Rohingya refugees.
The UNHCR acknowledged UAE’s generous contribution. “UNHCR and the refugees we serve thank the government and people of the United Arab Emirates for this generous contribution, which will address the nutritional needs of thousands of Rohingya children,” Allen said.
