Food assistance slashed for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees trapped in Bangladesh camps : NPR

FILE – An aerial view of a Rohingya refugee camp, housing more than a million members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, covers the land in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 25, 2025.

Mahmoud Hossain Opu/AP

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Mahmoud Hossain Opu/AP

SYDNEY — Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees struggling to survive in Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps will see their food aid cut from Wednesday, raising alarms in an increasingly desperate community.

Currently, the 1.2 million Rohingya trapped in squalid camps receive $12 per month per person, an amount that Myanmar’s persecuted minority has long warned is barely sustainable. Most of the Rohingya living in the camps fled brutal attacks by the Myanmar military in 2017 and are barred from working in Bangladesh, leaving them largely dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.

Under the United Nations World Food Program’s new tiered system, the amount each person receives will vary depending on the severity of their family’s needs, with about 17 percent of the population receiving just $7 a month. A third of the population classified as “extremely food insecure,” such as child-headed households, will continue to receive $12.

“It is very difficult to understand how we are going to survive now on just $7. It is our children who will suffer the most,” said camp resident Mohammed Rahim, who said he and his wife were already struggling to feed their three children before the reduction. “I am deeply concerned that people may face extreme hunger and some may even die due to lack of food. »

The WFP has repeatedly warned that rations in camps could be reduced following last year’s sharp foreign aid cuts by the United States and other countries, which saw the agency lose a third of its funding. But WFP spokesman Kun Li said Wednesday’s change in food distribution was not linked to funding cuts and should not be described as a “ration reduction”, although two-thirds of the population received fewer rations as a result.

The agency said a reduction in rations requires food aid to be reduced below 2,100 calories per day, the minimum recommended standard for emergency food aid. But the WFP said even those who will now receive just $7 a month will still be able to meet that threshold.

The plan “ensures that even with differentiated ration sizes, all Rohingya continue to meet their minimum food needs, thereby strengthening fairness, transparency and equity in food assistance,” the agency said in a statement.

But a reduction in rations is precisely what the change means for the Rohingya, said Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s commissioner for refugee assistance and repatriation.

With desperation already high, Rahman told The Associated Press that the Rohingya would try to flee in search of food and work.

“Law and order will deteriorate,” he said.

The same army that attacked the Rohingya in 2017 in what the United States declared a genocide toppled Myanmar’s government in 2021 and remains in control of the country. This makes it virtually impossible for the Rohingya to return home safely.

Foreign aid over the past year has reduced misery in the camps, particularly for children, with school closures contributing to a surge in kidnappings, child marriages and child labor. Programs supporting the Rohingya were only about half funded in 2025, and are only 19% funded this year.

In 2023, WFP was forced to reduce rations to $8 per month due to a drop in donations. In November of that year, the agency said 90 percent of camp residents could not afford adequate food and 15 percent of children suffered from acute malnutrition, the highest rate ever recorded in the camps. Rations were restored to $12 per month in 2024.

Hungry, exhausted and increasingly desperate camp residents who survived the reduction in rations wonder how they will cope in the future. Dozens of Rohingya protested against the new system on Tuesday, calling for full rations to be reinstated. Many held signs warning of famine and declaring: “Food is a right, not a choice.”

Rahim, a father of three whose food aid was reduced to $7 a month, said he was sick and his children could not safely leave the camps to earn money because of the growing risk of kidnapping, violence and trafficking.

Rahim said several people he knows are already considering returning to Myanmar because of reduced rations, despite the serious risks. Many others, he said, are considering fleeing to Malaysia on rickety fishing boats – an incredibly dangerous journey that results in the deaths or disappearances of hundreds of Rohingya children, women and men each year.

“Ration cuts push people into life-threatening risks, leaving them with no safe choice,” he said. “I am very worried about the future of our children.”