The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has increased the value of its monthly food voucher from US$8 to US$10 per person for the entire Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh. The move, starting January 1, comes after a sharp reduction of food aid by one third in 2023. In March last year, the voucher value for refugees was reduced from US$12 to US$10, a further reduction - down to US$8 - was implemented in June, leaving tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees hungry and in growing despair.
The funding crush in 2023 had for the first time led to the reduction of refugees’ food assistance, raising concerns about dramatic consequences: hunger, rising malnutrition, school dropout, child marriage, child labor and gender-based violence. Rohingya refugees rely almost entirely on humanitarian aid, as they cannot leave the camps and legally work to sustain their families.
In a statement Tuesday, the UN agency also announced it will gradually distribute locally fortified rice to the Rohingya population, starting in one or two camps and eventually extending to all camps in Cox’s Bazar and in Bhasan Char Island.
“The year 2023 has been a tumultuous one for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, who lived through multiple fire outbreaks, cyclones, and, for the first time, ration cuts,” said Dom Scalpelli, WFP Country Director in Bangladesh.
Recurring natural disasters have a devastating impact on the congested camps, and their frequency barely leaves time to rebuild shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin before the next fateful blow strikes. While Cox’s Bazar was spared a direct hit when Cyclone Mocha made landfall in May this year, considerable destruction to shelters and infrastructure occurred in the camps.
“The rapid deterioration of the food and nutrition situation in the camps is extremely worrying. Through all this, the donor community stood with the Rohingya – it's all thanks to its generous contributions, we can now boost the voucher value and add locally fortified rice to WFP’s food assistance package.”
A sharp decline in resources led to the dramatic reduction in the value of WFP’s food voucher in 2023. The UN agency currently has a funding gap of US$61 million to increase the food ration to the full amount, now US$12.5 with fortified rice added.
“We remain fully committed to the Rohingya while supporting vulnerable Bangladeshis who have so generously hosted the Rohingya over the years. We are immensely grateful to all our donors for their unwavering support, and we count on them to step up even further in 2024 to ensure we can provide the Rohingya with a full and nutritious ration,” Scalpelli added.
According to the WFP, monitoring has shown a sharp decrease in food consumption following the significant cuts. The number of people struggling to consume enough food shot up from 79 percent in June to 90 percent by November 2023.
The nutritional situation, particularly among children, is also worrying. Global acute malnutrition (GAM) has risen to 15.1 percent - the highest since the onset of the 2017 influx of hundreds of thousands new refugees, exceeding the emergency threshold of 15 percent, according to WHO emergency classification.
Global Acute Malnutrition is a measure of acute malnutrition in refugee children under five years. The measure provides information on the percentage of all children in this age range in a refugee population who are classified with low weight-for-height or oedema. GAM is also commonly used an indicator of the overall food and nutrition situation of the general population. A value of larger than 15 percent is very high.
Nearly 1 million ethnic Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority from Buddhist-majority Myanmar, now live in the sprawling refugee camps of eastern Bangladesh. In 2023, the refugees in Cox’s Bazar endured multiple fires and cyclones, monsoon floods, and landslides. Their vulnerability has further deepened due to the rising violence and insecurity in the camps, as well as human trafficking.
The number of Rohingya taking risky boat trips across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea to flee mounting hunger and hopelessness in the refugee camps of Bangladesh this year has topped last year’s numbers. As of November 30, more than 3,468 Rohingya have embarked on the risky boat journey in 2023 - an increase from 2022, when overall 3,705 Rohingya embarked. Almost half of those risking the journey were women and children.
Most of those fleeing the camps by boat try to make it across the Andaman to Malaysia or Indonesia, both Muslim-majority countries. Several hundred have died attempting the voyage on overcrowded vessels that often are old and rickety. Entire boats packed with refugees are believed to have been lost at sea.
Aid agencies and refugees themselves ascribe the rising numbers of those risking the journey most of all to conditions worsening in the camps and to hopes fading that the Rohingya will be able to return safely to Myanmar anytime soon.
August 25, 2023, marked the sixth anniversary since over 700,000 Rohingya women, men and children fled Myanmar to Bangladesh, following coordinated attacks by the Myanmar military. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously sought refuge in the country.
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. The UN called the campaign ethnic cleansing; the United States declared the Myanmar government committed genocide against the Rohingya.
Rohingya people have endured unspeakable hardship for years. For decades, the Rohingya have faced institutionalized discrimination in Myanmar, such as exclusion from citizenship. 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.