Dhaka, MINA – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said he fears a potential cut in foreign funding could plunge thousands of persecuted Rohingya currently sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh into hunger and insecurity, Anadolu Agency reported.
Bangladesh has hosted more than 1.2 million Rohingya in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district since they fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
The Rohingya are largely dependent on foreign aid as they have no access to jobs in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp.
The UNHCR chief visited Bangladesh on Friday amid a U.S. policy shift in foreign aid support that some fear could affect the Rohingya.
Also Read: US Approves $3 Billion in Military Sales to Israel: State Department
“If donor support were to drop drastically — which is likely — the enormous work being done by the Bangladesh government, aid agencies, and refugees would be impacted, putting thousands at risk of hunger, disease, and insecurity,” Grandi wrote Friday night in X after visiting the camps in Cox’s Bazar.
UNHCR Bangladesh said that with more than 1 million Rohingya refugees, his visit was focused on increasing support for the Bangladesh government, improving protection, assistance, and finding solutions to the plight of Myanmar nationals.
Grandi met with Bangladesh’s transitional government chief Muhammad Yunus on Thursday, where Yunus urged greater funding for the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees living in the camps amid growing uncertainty about the U.S. shift away from foreign aid.
Yunus said earlier this month in a meeting with U.S. officials in Dhaka that U.S. aid was the most important aid to the Rohingya refugees. []
Also Read: Arab Countries Announce Saturday as First Day of Ramadan
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
Mina Indonesia
Mina Arabic
Mina Sport