The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Monday that it was considering cutting food aid for the one million Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh for the second time in three months due to funding constraints.
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We plan to reduce rations for the second time, from $10 to $8 per person per month, starting June 1," WFP spokesman Kun Li told AFP in an email, adding that "the full ration was $12 and was reduced to $10 in March." "The reduction in rations is due to lack of funding. We urgently need $56 million to restore the full ration (to $12)," the UN spokesman added. There was no immediate reaction from Bangladeshi authorities.
One million refugees
Bangladesh hosts about one million Rohingya, including some 750,000 who fled in 2017 a campaign of repression by the Burmese military under investigation for "acts of genocide" before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). March's reduction has already caused hardship in Bangladesh's overcrowded camps, where malnutrition is endemic, according to organizations providing aid to refugees from Myanmar's persecuted Muslim minority.
Khin Maung, a camp-based Rohingya association leader, said the new cut came as a surprise to refugees facing starvation. "This is a shameful action on the part of the United Nations," he told AFP. "In my opinion, it's political. Some people said it was a ploy to send the Rohingya back to Myanmar," he added.
Risk of stirring up resentment
Aid workers say the move could worsen insecurity in the camps where dozens of deadly clashes between Rohingya criminal groups occurred last year. The United Nations and foreign diplomats have advocated for the Bangladeshi government to lift the ban on refugees working outside camps around Cox's Bazar.
But experts say such a move could fuel resentment among locals and make the Rohingya less inclined to return to Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Burma has decided, after several unsuccessful attempts, to implement a pilot project to repatriate about 1100 Rohingya to a Burmese township on the border with Bangladesh.
A Burmese delegation is expected to visit camps in Bangladesh this week to try to convince refugees to settle there. But the Rohingya who visited villages erected for their repatriation to Myanmar earlier this month told AFP of their reservations, such as Hafiz Solaïman, 38, who said he did not "trust the Burmese government.
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