WFP/Saikat Mojumder. In Basanchar, Bangladesh, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar receives support from the United Nations.
As the new year begins, the World Food Programme (WFP) is working to restore critical food rations to Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Effective 1 January, the value of food stamps for camp residents rose from $8 to $10 per person per month.
In addition to increasing the value of food stamps, WFP will gradually distribute locally produced fortified rice to refugees. The move will initially benefit one or two camps and eventually expand to all camps on Cox's Bazar and Basanchar islands.
In 2023, food rations for Rohingya refugees were cut twice in three months due to funding shortfalls: from $12 per person per month in March last year to $10 per person per month, and again to just $8, or 27 cents per day, in June.
Food security suffers
Over the past few months, the food security and nutrition situation in the camps has deteriorated rapidly. WFP monitoring shows that the proportion of Rohingya refugees who do not have enough to eat increased from 79 percent in June last year to 90 percent in November.
At the same time, the nutritional status of refugee groups, especially children, is equally worrying. The overall incidence of acute malnutrition rose to 15.1 percent, the highest level since the influx of refugees began in 2017. According to the World Health Organization, this is already beyond the level of emergency (15%).
Vulnerability Deepening
In addition, Rohingya refugees have experienced multiple fires, cyclones, monsoon floods and landslides in the past year. This, coupled with increased violence and insecurity in refugee camps and rampant human trafficking, has further deepened the vulnerability of the Rohingya.
As of November 30 last year, 3,468 Rohingya, nearly half of them women and children, had embarked on a deadly sea journey to seek a better life in other countries through the Andaman Sea.
There is still a funding gap
WFP's head in Bangladesh, Dom Scalpelli, said the agency remained fully committed to helping the Rohingya, while supporting Bangladeshis, who have generously hosted the Rohingya for many years, as they themselves are vulnerable.
He noted that it was thanks to the generosity of donors that WFP was able to reinvigorate the value of food stamps and increase the use of locally produced fortified rice into aid programmes.
But if aid is to be fully restored, namely food stamps of US$12.5 per person per month and fortified rice, WFP still faces a funding gap of US$61 million. To this end, Scarpery hopes donors will further increase their funding in 2024 to ensure adequate and nutritious food rations for the Rohingya.
The Rohingya crisis
The predominantly Muslim Rohingya have long suffered discrimination and persecution in Myanmar. In August 2017, Myanmar government forces launched a "clearance operation" against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in the western part of the country, causing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in just a few months, creating one of the world's fastest-growing refugee crises.
Currently, more than 1 million Rohingya survivors live in camps in Cox's Bazar and Basanchar in Bangladesh. Unable to return to Myanmar, they are trapped in cramped conditions and often lack security to earn a living.
