Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Development partners and donors will bear the cost of housing and feeding of the Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh amid violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and decades of persecution by the Myanmar army.
They gave the assurance at a meeting with the government high officials held at Bangladesh Secretariat in the capital recently.
Representatives of World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Commission for Human Rights (UNCHR, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and Norwegian Red Cross were present at the meeting, presided over by the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry’s Secretary Md Shah Kamal.
The government officials highlighted the various aspect of the Rohingya refugee crisis at the meeting and sought their help to ramp up aid delivery and other assistance citing Bangladesh’s resource constrain.
“Development partners and donors assured us of bearing all the housing and feeding cost of the Rohingya refugees. They will provide the support until the return of the refugees to Myanmar,” Secretary Md Shah Kamal, told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, their support has become a great relief for the government when it was facing challenge to shelter and feed the huge number of refugees arrived in Bangladesh’s border district Cox’s Bazar.
Earlier, the Cox’s Bazar district administration told media that they were facing immense challenge to shelter and feed Rohingya refugees following drops in food supply from both local and overseas aid groups.
“With more arriving, feeding all the refugees has become a big challenge for local authorities amid drops in food supply. Lack of enthusiasm from local and global aid agencies may be the reason of supply shortage,” Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Ukhiya Md Nikaruzzaman told The New Nation in a recent interview.
“The WFP has taken the responsibility to supply foods to the refugees until their return. Other UN agencies, development partners and foreign countries will share the responsibility to provide shelter, healthcare and necessary humanitarian assistance,” said Shah Kamal.
The UN agency is now meeting emergency food needs for nearly 700,000 Rohingya, supplying nutrient-rich biscuits to new arrivals and feeding registered residents with regular distributions of rice, vegetable oil, and lentils.
Apart from this, the government, non-government, private and voluntary organizations are also providing food support to refugees.
When asked, the Secretary said, “We’re receiving all-out cooperation from the international communities and bilateral partners to mitigate the relief and other humanitarian needs of the refugees.”
“We earlier sought their support in this regard and they assured us of their support overwhelmingly,” he said.
According to Disaster Management and Relief Ministry, about 10.48 lakh registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees took shelter mostly in makeshift settlements in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas and of them more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived since August 25 this year fleeing latest violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Ministry officials said Bangladesh has to spend Tk 315 crore per month to house and feed an estimated 10.48 lakh registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees.
Among the bi-lateral partners, Turkey has already made a commitment to provide food to 100,000 refugees and build 30,000 shelters for them.
