Guterres’ Bangladesh visit: Will
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is visiting Bangladesh amid fears that food aid for Rohingya refugees could be cut drastically due to funding shortages. The food crisis could worsen the already inhumane living conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp. Guterres visited the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp on Friday (March 14). This is his second visit to Bangladesh. Guterres’ visit is seen as significant after the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it would reduce food aid after USAID’s operations were halted.
The WFP said food aid for the Rohingya could be cut from $12.50 to $6 per month from April due to a lack of funding. Aid workers fear that this will lead to a rise in the number of hungry people in the overcrowded camps. “What we are getting now is not enough,” said Mohammad Sabbir, a 31-year-old Rohingya refugee who fled Myanmar in 2017. If it is halved, we will simply starve.”
Guterres’ Bangladesh visit: Will
The WFP said the decision was made because of an overall funding shortfall. It was not related to the Trump administration’s decision to cut foreign aid, including to USAID. However, a Bangladeshi official told Reuters that the Trump administration’s decision had an impact because the United States is the top donor to Rohingya refugees.
More than 1 million Rohingya have taken refuge in Bangladesh. They fled persecution in Myanmar in 2016 and 2017. They have limited employment or education opportunities in the camps in Cox’s Bazar.
About 70,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh last year, Reuters reported, mainly because of the growing food crisis in Rakhine state.
“We are not allowed to work here. I feel helpless when I think about my children. What will I feed them?”
“I hope we are not forgotten,” he said. The world community must come forward to help.
The WFP said it needs $15 million in April to maintain full food assistance for refugees. But concerns about food security are growing during Ramadan, which ends this year in late March.
Bangladesh’s interim government hopes Guterres’ visit will help attract international attention and mobilize aid for refugees.
Guterres will join Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and Bangladesh’s interim government for an iftar with Rohingya refugees on Friday afternoon (March 14).
