Cox’s Bazar: UN cuts food rations for Rohingya refugees

The World Food Program declared that it is conditioned by a lack of funds, despite the fact that the region has just been devastated by Cyclone Mocha. According to some observers, many refugees may be forced to return to Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where the situation remains difficult due to civil conflict.

Cox’s Bazar () – The Burmese Rohingya community has expressed concern about the UN decision to further reduce food rations for the million refugees living in the Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh. The World Food Program (WFP) stated that it had been forced to reduce assistance due to lack of funds. This is the second cut in three months, and comes at a time of great hardship for the local population after Cyclone Mocha hit the Burmese state on the Rakhine border on May 14. According to the same UN, at least 800,000 people need urgent humanitarian aid.

The organization’s spokesman, Kun Lee, explained to the media that, after having reduced the subsidies from 12 to 10 dollars a month, these will go from 10 to 8 dollars a month as of June 1. $56 million will be needed to continue supplying full rations, he added.

Peter Saiful, an ethnic Rohingya Christian (although the community is predominantly Islamic), spoke with and listed the risks stemming from the UN decision: “Many criminal groups are putting pressure on the Rohingya to misuse the subsidies and can deceive young people. Also, since the Bangladeshi government does not allow the Rohingya to work “Some may flee the camps to try to earn money in isolated parts of the country. Finally, without the food they need to survive, disease may increase, or some may even agree to return to Myanmar despite an unsafe environment.” .

On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military junta overthrew the previous government and seized power in a coup, sparking a bloody civil conflict. The Rohingya, a community concentrated in the western Rakhine state, persecuted and made stateless by the Burmese government, have fled to Bangladesh since 2017 to escape military violence against them.

“Bangladesh cannot force the Rohingya to leave except through voluntary repatriation. No Rohingya has agreed to return to Myanmar,” said Peter Saiful, who belongs to the Bethel Protestant Church. “There may be an attempt to force the Food Program to reduce food rations and basic necessities to force the Rohingya to repatriate,” he added.

Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the BBC that the Rohingya were received in Bangladesh out of respect for human rights: “When they were in danger, we allowed them into our country, we took measures for them. At least 40,000 women were pregnant. We gave them food and health care. At first no one came near, but the people of our country helped them,” the prime minister said.

Meanwhile, living conditions in the camps have progressively deteriorated: in the last five and a half years, at least 164 murders have been recorded. Some Rohingya are involved in drug trafficking and human trafficking, and disputes between different groups over control of drug trafficking within the camps appear to be the cause of the violence. In addition, in recent months, some Bangladeshi soldiers have been ambushed by ethnic Myanmar militias. For this reason, Dhaka views the presence of so many refugees in its territory with ever worse eyes.