UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the humanitarian aid cuts by the United States and other countries in Europe “are a crime.”
He commented on a four-day visit to Bangladesh where he is assessing the plight of more than one million Rohingya refugees whose future remained uncertain over possible aid cuts soon.
The UN would do everything possible to arrange adequate funding for the Rohingya refugees after the recent announcement of dramatic aid cuts by the US and other countries in Europe, Guterres said.
As a result, the UN's food agency recently said it would have no option but to cut food aid by half for the Rohingya from April if they fail to arrange adequate funds to feed them.
In a meeting with Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus in the capital, Dhaka, Guterres expressed his concern over Western nations’ decision to boost defence spending while humanitarian aid is squeezed across the world.
”(Aid) cuts are a crime,” the UN chief was quoted as telling Yunus by the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha agency during Friday’s meeting.
A large proportion of the millions of dollars needed to support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh come from the US Agency for International Development or USAID.
The WFP said the food rations could be reduced to $6, from the current $1 2.50 per month, unless adequate funding is secured.
TRT Global - Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges in neighbouring Myanmar mostly in 2016 and 2017, in overcrowded camps in the southern Cox's Bazar district.
Repatriation is ultimate solution
The US has been the top donor to Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees, providing the UN with emergency food and nutrition assistance.
The US usually provides almost half of the aid money spent on the humanitarian response to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which provided about $300 million in 2024.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, including more than 700,000 who arrived in 2017, have lived in Bangladesh for decades.
About 70,000 others crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024.
During fighting with the military junta, an opposition force known as the Arakan Army effectively took over the Rakhine state where Rohingya were displaced and took shelter in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh says repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar is the ultimate solution.
The Buddhist-majority Myanmar has been accused in an international court of genocide against Rohingya.
Complexities over verification and other diplomatic and political issues have made the future of the refugees bleak.
TRT Global - Rohingya mostly depend on foreign aid as they do not have access to employment in refugee camps.
