UN seeks aid for one million Rohingya refugees in B’desh
GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday called for $920 million in aid for around a million Rohingya taking shelter in Bangladesh after bloodshed in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
About 740,000 of the Muslim minority fled to Bangladesh as a result of a military crackdown in August 2017, condemned by the UN as ethnic cleansing.
They joined another 300,000 Rohingya who were already living in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar following previous bouts of violence.
In a joint statement, the UN refugee agency and the International Organization of Migration said they were looking to raise $920 million to meet “the massive needs of more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities”.
“Critical aid and services such as food, water, sanitation and shelter represent more than half of the funding needs this year.
“Other key sectors of the appeal include health, site management, protection activities including child protection and addressing sexual and genderbased violence, immunisation education and nutrition,” it added.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on Myanmar “to take urgent action to address the root causes of this crisis which have persisted for decades, so that people are no longer forced to flee and can eventually return home in safety and dignity”.
In Myanmar, the Rohingya are widely seen as interlopers from Bangladesh and have been denied citizenship, rights and access to services for decades.