Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s camps were to have food assistance slashed starting yesterday, raising alarm throughout the community.
The 1.2 million Rohingya in the camps receive US$12 a month per person, an amount that the minority from Myanmar has said is barely sustainable.
Most of the Rohingya in the camps fled attacks by Myanmar’s military in 2017 and they are legally barred from working in Bangladesh, leaving them largely reliant upon humanitarian aid to survive.
Photo: AP
Under the UN World Food Programme’s new tiered system, the amount each person receives would vary based on the severity of their family’s needs, with about 17 percent of the population getting as little as US$7 per month.
One-third of the population that has been classified as “extremely food insecure,” such as households headed by children, would continue receiving US$12.
“It is very difficult to understand how we will survive now with only [US]$7 [per month]. Our children will suffer the most,” said camp resident Mohammed Rahim, adding that he and his wife were already struggling to feed their three children before the reduction.
“I am deeply concerned that people may face severe hunger and some may even die due to lack of food,” he said.
The World Food Programme has said that rations in the camps could be slashed as a result of last year’s steep foreign aid cuts by the US and other countries, which saw the agency lose one-third of its funding.
However, World Food Programme spokeswoman Kun Li said that the change in food distribution was unrelated to the funding cuts, and it should not be described as a “ration cut,” despite two-thirds of the population receiving fewer rations as a result.
The agency in a statement said that a ration cut implies food assistance is being reduced below 2,100 calories a day, the recommended minimum for emergency food aid.
Even those who would receive just US$7 per month would still be able to meet that threshold, it said.
The plan “ensures that even with differentiated ration sizes, all Rohingya continue meeting their minimum food needs, strengthening fairness, transparency and equity in food assistance,” it said.
Bangladeshi Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Additional Secretary Mohammad Mizanur Rahman disagreed with the UN agency’s description.
A ration cut is precisely what the change means for the Rohingya, Rahman said.
With desperation already running high, the Rohingya would attempt to flee in search of food and work, he said.
“Law and order will be deteriorated,” he added.
The same military that attacked the Rohingya in 2017 during what the US declared a genocide overthrew Myanmar’s government in 2021 and remains in control of the country. That has made it virtually impossible for the Rohingya to return home safely.
Last year’s foreign aid cuts deepened misery across the camps, particularly for children, with the closure of schools contributing to a surge in kidnapping, child marriage and child labor. Programs to support the Rohingya were only about half funded last year and are only 19 percent funded this year.
Camp residents wonder how they will cope moving forward.
Dozens of Rohingya on Tuesday protested against the new system, calling for the restoration of full rations. Many held signs warning of starvation and saying that “food is a right, not a choice.”
Rahim, the father of three whose food aid has been reduced to US$7 a month, said he is sick, and his children cannot safely leave the camps to earn money due to the increasing risk of kidnapping, violence and trafficking.
Rahim said several people he knows are already considering returning to Myanmar because of the reduced rations, despite the severe risks.
He said that many others are considering fleeing to Malaysia on rickety fishing boats — an incredibly dangerous journey that results in hundreds of Rohingya children, women and men dying or vanishing each year.
“Ration cuts are pushing people toward life-threatening risks, leaving them with no safe choices,” he said.
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