UN appeals for $877M for Rohingya, locals in Bangladesh

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - UN agencies and their partners on Tuesday launched the 2020 Joint Response Plan for Rohingya humanitarian crisis, with an appeal aiming to raise $877 million for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and other vulnerable communities there.

“Building on the efforts and success of previous years, the appeal aims to raise $877 million to respond to the needs of approximately 855,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and over 444,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in the communities generously hosting them”, said a statement issued by UNHCR on Tuesday.

The statement said that urgent funding is needed to meet the fundamental needs of the refugees -- such as access to food, shelter, clean water and sanitation -- and that 55% of the overall appeal would be spend here.

The UN also expressed concerns as “health, protection, education, site management, energy and environment [at Rohingya refugee camps] continue to be critical to ensuring the safety and dignity of Rohingya refugees, and the well-being of local Bangladeshis,” it added.

Until peaceful and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya could be done, the world must stand by the persecuted people as well as the government and people of Bangladesh who continue to host them, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

“Most important will be engaging refugees and hearing their voices and understanding their hopes and vision for the future,” he added.

Terming Bangladesh’s long annual monsoon and cyclone seasons as risks for Rohingya refugees living in squalid makeshift camps, the statement said the UN aid agencies were working tirelessly for them since the beginning of the Rohingya influx in 2017.

“An important achievement in 2019 was the biometric registration of all Rohingya refugees living in the camps, with those over the age of 12 receiving individual identity documents. This secures their identities, enhances their protection and lays the foundations for an even more targeted, effective and efficient humanitarian response going forward,” it said.

The statement termed the minimization of deforestation at Bangladesh’s southern hill areas, where the Rohingya refugee camps are located, a great achievement.

“All Rohingya refugee households now use Liquefied Petroleum Gas for cooking, which has led to a staggering 80 percent drop in demand for firewood. Some 30,000 local Bangladeshi families are also now included in the initiative,” it added.

Referring to one of the most crying needs of Rohingya, education, the statement said: “A pilot phase will get underway shortly, targeting 10,000 children in grades 6 to 9, with plans to scale up currently under development.”

In January this year, the Bangladesh government allowed Rohingya children living in refugee camps to access formal education under Myanmar's curriculum so that they could continue their education in Myanmar after repatriation in future.

- Persecuted people

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience."

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down while 113,000 others vandalized, it added.