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Dhaka, Bangladesh – The United Nations Food Agency said that it had managed to avoid drastic food aid cuts to Rohingyas refugees in Bangladesh in the face of concerns that their monthly rations are reduced by more than half.
Earlier this month, the World Food Program, or WFP, said it could be forced to reduce monthly rations for more than a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, from $ 12.50 per person to $ 6, from April.
Instead, the Ration for Rohingyas living in camps in and around Cox’s Bazaar must be set at $ 12, while the ration for those who live in Bhashan Char, an island in Bengal Bay, would be adjusted to $ 13, said a PAM official on Thursday.
The Bangladesh government has encouraged the Rohingyas to move to Bhashan Char, in order to relieve overcrowded conditions in the 33 camps in the Cox Bazaar region. Since 2021, around 35,000 refugees have moved to the island, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
On Thursday, the United States announced that it would give millions of financing purposes via WFP.
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“The United States provides $ 73 million in new assistance to Rohingyas refugees,” said the spokesman for the US State Department, Tammy Bruce, in an X article. “This food and nutritional support via @WFP will provide food and nutritional assistance for more than a million people.
“It is important that our international partners engage with the sharing of the burden with vital help like this.”
Since 2017, Washington has been the largest donor to help Rohingyas refugees, contributing nearly 2.4 billion dollars, according to the State Department.
The administration of the interim chief of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, thanked the US government for the influx of funds.
More is necessary
The latest Rohingyas fate was revealed two weeks ago when the United Nations has called on the international community to obtain aid after WFP announced the planned reductions in food rations.
“I can promise that we will do everything to avoid it [a humanitarian crisis]And I will speak to all the countries of the world that can support us in order to make sure that funds are made available, “said UN secretary general António Guterres during his first trip to refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh in almost seven years.
Friday, a PAM official welcomed the news while warning that more was necessary.
“Although the reductions of rational in April are avoided, given the immense needs, we always need continuous financial support where we will soon lack funds,” said Kun Li, responsible for the communication and advocacy of WFP in Asia and the Pacific.
Human rights defenders also expressed their concerns about the current fate of the Rohingyas, a group of stateless Muslim minorities, many of which were forced from their home in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar following the repression of August 2017 by government forces.
The last-minute support of donors had prevented “the worst case,” said Daniel Sullivan, director of Africa, Asia and the Middle East at Refugees International.
“Renewed donor funds, including $ 73 million for WFP announced by the United States, will maintain rations at the same level,” he said in a statement. “However, broader aid reductions already negatively affect refugees and we remain deeply concerned about the fact that not to renew minimum aid will result in hunger, diseases and avoidable deaths.”
A human rights defender who lived in a Rohingya camp for six years spoke of the fate of refugees.
“I appreciate and thank the United States for having intervened to respond to the food reduction crisis and to ask other donor countries to continue to finance essential rescue assistance programs in camps,” said International Refugee Colleue Lucky Karim, in a statement.
“As the smaller cuts have shown it, the drastic cutting of rations would have accelerated malnutrition, diseases and negative adaptation mechanisms, including child marriage and human smuggling,” she said.
Back in Cox’s Bazar, a rohingya expressed his relief.
“We were worried, but now relieved,” Benarnews Mohammad Nur, chief of the Jadimura camp in the Teknaf subdistrict, told Benarnews. “How can a person live with only $ 6?”
Benarnews is an information service affiliated with the FRG.