UN agency to halve food ration for Rohingya refugees amid overall funding decline News
Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UN agency to halve food ration for Rohingya refugees amid overall funding decline

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) plans to halve the food rations to $6 a month per refugee starting next month. Amnesty International on Thursday called on the international community to step up and support the WFP to avoid a devastating impact on the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

With 95 percent of Rohingya households dependent on humanitarian assistance, the funding crisis will only worsen the existing dire conditions faced by these refugees. Since most of these refugees have limited access to employment due to restrictions by Bangladesh, these groups are heavily reliant on food aid. Malnutrition remains a serious issue among the refugees, with nearly half of the children showing signs of undernourishment. Therefore, the funding cuts will also disproportionately affect children, pregnant women and the elderly. 

The WFP has attributed the funding shortfall to an overall decline in funding. Even though the WFP did not associate the funding crisis with the US President’s recent executive order to pause foreign aid, Amnesty International previously warned that the aid freeze has forced hospitals and refugee camps in Myanmar to cease operations abruptly.

The regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International, Smriti Singh, urged donor countries to bridge the funding shortfall and prevent one of the world’s largest refugee crises from plunging further into hunger and insecurity.

The group has also called on Bangladesh’s interim government to ratify the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol and to grant refugees access to labour markets to ensure their survival and well-being. The convention defines “refugees” as people who fled their origin state based on a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. The convention also outlines minimum state obligations to protect refugees, including the right to housing, work and education. 

The funding cuts come at a time when a new wave of refugees is rushing to Bangladesh, stretching the limited resources to support the newly arrived relatives and others escaping the violence in Myanmar. Since October 2024, Amnesty International has observed that the newly arrived Rohingya refugees faced difficulty in accessing essential services. Bangladesh has also forcibly returned refugees to Myanmar, violating the principle of non-refoulement.

The ongoing crisis would be the key issue discussed by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Bangladesh, following a visit by the UN Special Envoy to Myanmar. The visit is expected to advance efforts to resolve the Rohingya crisis, according to the country’s Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary. 

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