Two United Nations (UN) agencies warned on Monday that reduced global funding could have severe consequences for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration issued the warning at the launch of their first joint multi-year funding appeal for food and educational help to Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar for the past eight years.
“Any funding shortfalls in critical areas, including reductions to food assistance, cooking fuel or basic shelter, will have dire consequences for this highly vulnerable population and may force many to resort to desperate measures, such as embarking on dangerous boat journeys to seek safety”, the agencies said in a statement.
The UN agencies, alongside 113 partners, are calling for $934.5 million in the first year of the 2025-2026 appeal, to reach some 1.48 million people in Bangladesh including Rohingya refugees and host communities.
WFP’s Aid Cuts
Earlier in March, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) announced potential cuts to food rations for Rohingya refugees following the shutdown of USAID operations, raising fears among aid workers of rising hunger in the overcrowded camps.
WFP said this month the reduction was due to a broad shortfall in donations, not the Trump administration’s decision to cut U.S. foreign aid globally, including to USAID.
But a senior Bangladeshi official told Reuters that the U.S. decision most likely played a role, as the U.S. has been the top donor for Rohingya refugee aid.
Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges in neighbouring Myanmar mostly in 2016 and 2017, in camps in the southern Cox’s Bazar district where they have limited access to jobs or education.
Roughly 70,000 fled to Bangladesh last year, driven in part by growing hunger in their home Rakhine state, Reuters has reported.
(With inputs from Reuters)
