The United Nations on Friday announced plans to slash food aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, blaming a funding shortfall.

Various agencies have warned that this action would deepen food insecurity and malnutrition in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

About 730,000 Rohingya, a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an army crackdown the UN said was carried out with genocidal intent.

These included others who left in prior waves, nearly one million live in huts made of bamboo and plastic sheets.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it would reduce the value of its food assistance to $10 per person from $12 starting next month.

WFP said the pandemic, economic downturn, and global crises had stretched donor budgets.

The WFP appealed for $125 million in urgent funding, warning of “immense and long-lasting” repercussions on food security and nutrition in camps rife with malnutrition, where more than a third of children are stunted and underweight.

Onno Van Manen, Save the Children’s country director in Bangladesh, in a statement, said, “the international donor community is now turning its back on half a million Rohingya children and their families, pointing out that “this really shows the limits of its commitment to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”

Two UN special rapporteurs, Michael Fakhri and Thomas Andrews warned of the “devastating consequence” of the funding shortfall, saying it was “unconscionable” to cut rations just before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the UN human rights agency said in a statement.

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, based in Cox’s Bazar, the border district where the refugees live, said cuts could cause more Rohingya to take desperate measures to seek work.

Rohingya are barred from working to supplement their income, and Bangladesh has constructed fences around the camps that stop them from leaving. However, an increasing number are fleeing for countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia via perilous and often fatal boat journeys.

(Reuters/NAN)