Photo credit: Daily Star
Renewed violence in Myanmar has forced around 80,000 more Rohingya to take shelter in Bangladesh since August last year.
The Daily Star reports that this has added to the 1.2 million already residing there.
This has been revealed in a study conducted by the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) and the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). The fresh influx puts Bangladesh in a particularly tight spot, as it finds itself scrambling to not just address the challenges festering within the overcrowded camps but also to handle the pressure of new arrivals amid renewed concerns over funding sparked by the policy shift under the new President of the United States – the largest donor for the Rohingya refugees.
Funding shortages have always been an issue since nearly a million refugees entered Bangladesh in 2017. Since then, the US has provided nearly $2 billion in humanitarian assistance. But with the suspension of US funding for development projects in Bangladesh for at least three months, there is uncertainty about how this will affect Rohingya funding and whether previous commitments will be honoured. The World Food Program has also repeatedly cut rations due to funding shortfalls.
With such uncertainties, the state of the camps is likely to worsen. The RMMRU study paints a grim picture of living conditions, gender-based violence, and security concerns in the camps.
