UN pleads for urgent funding to prevent ration cuts for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for urgent funding to prevent food ration cuts for more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The WFP warned on Friday about the critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations in Bangladesh that jeopardises food assistance.

The agency said it requires $15 million for April and $81 million until the end of 2025 to sustain full rations.

Without urgent new funding, monthly rations must be halved to $6 per person, down from $12.50 per person just as refugees prepare to observe eid that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the end of March, WFP Bangladesh said in a statement.

All Rohingya receive vouchers that are redeemed for their choice of food at designated retailers in camps. Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district since they fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

On Wednesday, WFP wrote to Bangladeshi refugee officials about its plan to halve the food ration per person per month for the Rohingya because of a funding shortage beginning April 1.

The Bangladesh government attributed the funding crisis to the US President Donald Trump administration's shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last month as that agency provides 80 percent of the WFP's financial assistance‘Entirely dependent’

A new wave of Rohingya refugees in recent months exceeding 100,000 have crossed into Bangladesh, fleeing conflict in Myanmar.

The continued influx of Rohingya seeking safety places a greater strain on already overstretched resources said WFP.

"The Rohingya refugee crisis remains one of the world's largest and most protracted,” said WFP Country Director in Bangladesh, Dom Scalpelli.

“Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remain entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival. Any reduction in food assistance will push them deeper into hunger and force them to resort to desperate measures just to survive.”

“Immediate support is urgently needed to prevent this crisis from escalating further," added Scalpelli. In 2023, severe funding constraints forced WFP to reduce rations from $12 to $8 per person per month.

Rations, however, were later increased when funding was received. For a population with no legal status, no freedom of movement outside the camps and no sustainable livelihood opportunities, further cuts will exacerbate protection and security risks, said the UN food agency. to Rohingya.

___

Source: TRT