UN experts warn of catastrophic consequences if Rohingya refugee rations are cut

United Nations human rights experts have warned Thursday about catastrophic consequences for Myanmar Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh if life-saving food aid is slashed, and issued an urgent plea for donations to the Rohingya Refugee Response. The warning comes as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced this week it will have to cut food assistance to Rohingya refugees for the first time since they fled Myanmar six years ago.

“The planned rations reductions are the devastating consequence of the international community’s failure to provide funding for initiatives that address the fundamental needs of Rohingya refugees. Rations will be slashed for Rohingya refugees starting in a few weeks, just before Ramadan. This is unconscionable,” Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, and Thomas Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said in a joined statement.

The World Food Program said this week that because of a major funding shortfall, it will have to cut food assistance to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh for the first time since they fled Myanmar in 2017. The WFP is appealing for $125 million to avoid ration cuts, or at a minimum $80 million, to limit the ration cuts to one in 2023.  The UN agency warned that if no new funding commitments were made by April, a new round of deeper cuts will have to be made.

"If these cuts are made, they will be imposed on vulnerable people who are already food insecure. Acute malnutrition levels remain high, and chronic malnutrition is pervasive among the Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh, with more than a third of children stunted and underweight," the UN experts said.

WFP said the first cut would be from $12 to $10 per person per month and would seriously impact food security and nutrition, which are already alarming. The WFP says without a cash injection by April, it could be forced to further cut an additional $4 per person. Most Rohingya refugees are fully dependent on that money to feed their families.

“The repercussions of these cuts will be immediate and long-lasting, as refugees remain almost entirely dependent on this assistance for their nutritional needs,” Fakhri and Andrews said and warned the “most vulnerable, including children under five, adolescent girls, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, will be particularly exposed.” 

Unlike other vulnerable groups, the Rohingya have limited employment opportunities in the camps, relying almost entirely on humanitarian assistance to meet their food and other essential needs. WFP has been providing food, nutrition and other critical assistance to Rohingya men, women and children since their exodus from Myanmar in 2017.  

“The Rohingya, survivors of genocidal attacks by the Myanmar military, are now further victimized by the failure of the international community to ensure their basic right to food”, the experts said

Reductions in vital food assistance can make refugees more desperate, which could fuel further violence and unrest in the camps. This could also lead to a myriad human rights concerns, such as a heightened risk of human trafficking, particularly of children and girls, and more refugees embarking on perilous boat journeys.

“While many States have called for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, those in the camps need more than words and statements of solidarity. Rohingya refugees need immediate action from the international community to ensure that these cuts – and their generation-spanning consequences – are avoided. The stakes could not be higher“, Fakhri and Andrews said.

For decades, the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority, have faced institutionalized discrimination in Myanmar, such as exclusion from citizenship. In August 2017, the Myanmar government launched a military campaign that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh. The United Nations called the campaign ethnic cleansing; the United States declared the Myanmar government committed genocide against the Rohingya. 

More than a million Rohingya refugees are living currently at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya people, living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, are unable to move freely and are subject to government persecution and violence. Rising despair in Bangladesh’s refugee camps and ongoing violence in Myanmar are driving a dramatic increase in ethnic Rohingya risking perilous journeys across the Andaman Sea. 

The independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. The experts are not UN staff and work independent from any government or organization.

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization. The UN agency, awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, is saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to support people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. The World Food Programme works in over 120 countries and territories.  For millions of people worldwide, WFP assistance can make the difference between life and death. In 2022, WFP assistance reached some 140 million people globally.

Further information

Full text: Bangladesh: UN experts appeal for immediate funding to avert food ration cuts for Rohingya refugees, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, press release, published February 16, 2023
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/02/bangladesh-un-experts-appeal-immediate-funding-avert-food-ration-cuts

Full text: Lack of funds forces WFP to cut rations for Rohingya in Bangladesh, WFP press release, published February 17, 2023
https://www.wfp.org/news/lack-funds-forces-wfp-cut-rations-rohingya-bangladesh