The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s food aid agency, plans to cut the amount of financial aid it provides to Rohingya refugees displaced from Myanmar and seeking refuge in Bangladesh.
According to the report, the amount of monthly assistance will be reduced by 17 percent to 10 dollars per person from March 1 due to insufficient money in the Rohingya fund. At the same time, if there is not enough money in the fund, the amount of assistance may decrease further from April.
Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on Food Security Mikhail Fakhry and Myanmar Humanitarian Situation Reporter Tom Andrew reacted negatively to such a decision of WFP. They say cutting aid will adversely affect the food insecure Rohingya. Which will be immediate and lasting. Because refugees are totally dependent on aid.
Other hand, Onno Van Manen, the Bangladesh director of the international non-governmental organization Save the Children, said in a statement that donors should not turn their backs on the Rohingyas. Because, they need more support.
A Rohingya elder from Leda camp said, “What food items WFP provides to us don’t meet our daily needs. In this time, if aid is cut, how can we cover our daily necessities.”
“We are not allowed to work going outside camp and even do legal business amidst camp. And only a handful of the refugee got chance to work under NGOs in camp, where 99% are unemployed. Hence we all refugees are dependent on aid,” another refugee said by adding more that the decision of aid cut will directly push general refugees to starvation and most refugees will indirectly be pushed to wrong path for the course of proper livelihood collection.
