Monitoring Desk
DHAKA: The United Nations (UN) decision to slash the food supply to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh would have dangerous consequences, experts warned on Friday, as the World Food Program (WFP) plans to reduce rations from next month.
Bangladesh hosts over 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims, the majority of whom escaped persecution and deadly violence in Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.
International assistance for the Rohingya has been dropping since 2020 despite urgent requests for donations by the UN World Food Program (WFP) Rohingya Refugee Response. The WFP is appealing for around $125 million in funding to avoid ration cuts and has warned it would cut the value of its food aid to $10 per person from $12, or by 17 percent, starting March.
If no fresh funding commitments are made by April, the UN body said another round of deeper reductions would have to be made.
Cut in food ahead of Ramadan to deepen crisis
The food cuts, which will coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, would deepen the food crisis and child malnutrition in Rohingya camps.
The rations currently provided to the Rohingya camps are already insufficient, and reducing them would pose serious health problems for the refugee population.
“Without access to nutritious food items, children will be malnourished, and there may be effects on their growth and life expectancy. That may go down over time,” Asif Munier, a migration expert and ex-official of the International Organization for Migration, told Arab News.
Two UN special rapporteurs, Thomas Andrews and Michael Fakhri, warned that the cuts would impact vulnerable people who are already food insecure.
The refugees depend on aid, and if it is lacking, most of them will be desperate to leave, which may affect the security situation.
