DHAKA: UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has warned of impending hunger and disease among the Rohingya community sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh, amid a shift in US foreign aid policy.
The US is the largest donor of humanitarian aid for the Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Myanmar. Last year, it contributed $301 million, or 55 percent of all foreign aid, for more than 1.3 million Rohingya living in camps in Cox’s Bazar district on the southeast coast of Bangladesh.
The aid is feared to stop soon, as the Donald Trump administration announced in late January that it was eliminating most of US assistance globally.
The UNHCR chief, who arrived in Bangladesh earlier this week, visited the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar on Friday.
“If donor support decreases dramatically — which may happen — the huge work done by the Bangladesh government, aid agencies and refugees will be impacted, putting thousands at risk of hunger, disease and insecurity,” he said in an X post after the visit.
The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority, lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s. Since then, many of them have fled to Bangladesh, with about 700,000 arriving in 2017 after a military crackdown that the UN has been referring to as a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.
Today, more than 1.3 million Rohingya are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar — the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Mizanur Rahman, the Bangladeshi government’s top refugee relief and repatriation official, told Arab News on Thursday that several hospitals in the camps had already scaled back their services and would be forced to close if there was no funding available by the end of March.
The health care crisis would be further exacerbated by limited access to food in the settlements, where the majority of refugees are already malnourished.
“Pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as newborn children, will be affected in the long term. The Rohingya refugees here in Bangladesh could face a massive rise in malnutrition, a high death-birth rate, and an increased rate of disability,” said Asif Munier, a rights and migration expert.
“Even if the funding cuts continue for a year, the impact will be long-lasting. The humanitarian losses could be irreparable, and it might take years to mitigate the effects.”
Among other basic services that will be affected is security.
“Human trafficking from the camps is expected to increase due to the desperation for income and the need for cash flow. This type of trafficking typically occurs during the dry season. Over the next two, three months, human trafficking trends may rise,” Munier told Arab News.
“I hope the US government will review and negotiate the areas of humanitarian aid. In the meantime, we should consider implementing a contingency plan ... If necessary, some services that are not of high priority could be reduced. Softer needs, such as education, can be postponed for a few months. This will help ensure the continuation of basic services.”
