By SM Najmus Sakib
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Italy has reaffirmed its support for Rohingya refugees with a €2.5 million ($2.9 million) contribution to bolster life-saving assistance and protection efforts in Bangladesh, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday.
The funds will help sustain critical community-based protection programs and initiatives to prevent gender-based violence, strengthen child protection, and uphold refugee rights through continued registration and documentation, said UNHCR Bangladesh in a statement.
The funding was granted by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and its Directorate General for Migration Policies.
Ivo Freijsen, the UNHCR representative in Bangladesh, said this contribution from the Italian people will help meet Rohingya refugees’ most urgent needs and provide vital protection against the challenges and threats of life in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Some 1.16 million refugees continue to live in the densely populated camps on the southeastern coast of Cox’s Bazar struggling for food and other essential support amid global funding cuts as they entirely depend on humanitarian support.
Most of the Rohingya fled a crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017.
Among them, an estimated 150,000 Rohingya found safety in the camps since early 2024, after having been forced to flee continuous violence and human rights violations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, deepening humanitarian needs in Bangladesh, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Italy’s renewed commitment comes as global humanitarian funding continues to fall, forcing aid agencies to make increasingly difficult choices on which needs to meet and potentially losing hard-won gains in refugee health, well-being and self-reliance, it added.