Kazi Mohammad Jamshed
October 30, 2021
As of July 2021, only $366 million of around $1 billion humanitarian assistance fund required for Rohingya refugees has been committed or disbursed. The disbursement has declined to 34 percent of the total money required; it used to be within the range of 72 to 75 percent in the first three years of the Rohingya influx since 2017. Bangladesh, the host country for the vast majority of Rohingyas who fled atrocities in Myanmar, is left increasingly to fund their care on its own.
This downward trend in disbursements raises a question: Has the world forgotten the plight of the Rohingyas?
2021 marks the fourth anniversary of the military-backed “clearance operation” in Myanmar, followed by a massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in what UNHRC dubbed a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” While the rest of the world turned blind eye to the Rohingyas, Bangladesh generously extended temporary shelter to them. These stateless people have equal rights to lead a dignified life and build a stable future in their homeland like everyone else, which can be guaranteed only if the world community expresses solidarity with them. A stable funding commitment from long-standing donors is a prerequisite for food security, safe water, health care, and non-food items for 1.1 million Rohingyas currently living in Bangladesh.