‘Don’t cut the aid’: Insecurity worsens for stateless Rohingya, says UNHCR’s Grandi

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The plight of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya is intensifying almost eight years since hundreds of thousands fled persecution and sought shelter in Bangladesh, the UN said on Monday, in an appeal for $934.5 million to help them.

In a joint appeal, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) urged all countries to step up to support the displaced Rohingya – the world’s largest stateless population.

A ‘frightening’ place

The humanitarian situation in Cox’s Bazar – home to around one million Rohingya in Bangladesh – has worsened.

“This is not a place where people want to live,” said IOM Director-General Amy Pope. “It’s frightening. If you are a young woman, you do not leave your tent at night.”

Cross-border recruitment into terrorist organizations has risen sharply, while job opportunities have remained scarce and insecurity has spiked, humanitarians say.

Families are weighing options and many are choosing to migrate illegally in search of safety and a better life on the outside, the agencies warned.

Refugee city of one million people

The Bangladesh authorities – together with the UN and other relief agencies – are “basically running a city of more than a million people in one of the most vulnerable areas in the world”, said UNHCR’s High Commissioner Filippo Grandi, at the launch of a Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya and host communities.  

Echoing that message, IOM’s Ms. Pope warned that the crisis could spill out globally if States do not renew their efforts.  

Amid the 2017 Rohingya exodus from Rakhine state in Myanmar, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein described the crisis as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Today, conditions in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar – which sprung up in a matter of days – have deteriorated further – and conflict in Myanmar sparked by a military coup in 2021 mean that it is too dangerous for the Rohingya to return.

Terror link

If nations do not step up to provide Rohingya with alternatives to dependency on international aid, “we will see young people choose crime or terrorism as an alternative when they have no future”, Ms. Pope warned.  

“We’ll see young, young people, girls, sexually abused will see people have children at very young ages, will see a culture disappear.”

“The short-term solution is don’t cut the aid,” Ms. Pope continued, reminding States of the need to push for a political outcome that will addresses longstanding inequality and discrimination against Rohingya in Myanmar.

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Putting the issue back on the map

Mr. Grandi said he hoped the plan would put the issue “back on the map”, as global interest has declined in recent years.

“It’s not just the suffering of the people, but also the space that gets created for violence, for extremists, for criminal groups, for onward boat movements, to other countries in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Grandi explained.

Further arrivals and births have further crowded Cox’s Bazar, strained resources for host communities and mounted pressure on the Bangladeshi authorities.  

“I say this to my development partners – this is no time to leave the market,” said Dr. Khalilur Rahman, High Representative on the Rohingya Crisis and Priority Affairs of the Government of Bangladesh.

Dr. Rahman called on countries to seize the opportunity to reinvest political will in stabilizing Rakhine state, to “plant a seed of peace” in a troubled region and turn the crisis into a “win”.

“Behind each statement, there are people, and there are people who have languished for a long eight years to go back, people who have suffered untold miseries, and still have their hopes up,” the official said. “So, let’s not disappoint them.”

Filling the vacuum

Priorities include addressing food security to maintaining distributions of liquid gas, meaning refugees won’t need to cut down trees, damaging the environment, Mr. Grandi said.

The UNHCR chief noted that young people were pleading for work opportunities to give their lives more meaning, while they wait in limbo to return home. One in three Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is aged between 10 and 24.

Hostilities must cease

Fighting must stop for refugees to go home, the agency chiefs said, with Dr. Rahman of the Bangladeshi Government echoing that message.

“What we need to promote is peaceful coexistence between communities in Rakhine State,” Mr. Grandi said.