Rohingya refugees: UN calls for stepping up funding

The United Nations has called for sustained commitment from international partners to support the protection of nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and to help secure solutions for a lasting end to their plight.
The call came as the world observed Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day yesterday, seven years after about 750,000 members of Rohingya ethic minority group fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and took shelter in Bangladesh.
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR in a statement yesterday said the international community supported Bangladesh in ensuring protection and basic needs, but in recent months security issues and funding uncertainties undermined all but the most critical and life-saving assistance.
It urged donors and private actors to step up their funding to the Rohingya response, mentioning that humanitarian agencies have appealed for $852 million to assist 1.35 million people, including Rohingya refugees and hosting Bangladeshi communities, in 2024. 
“The Rohingya people deserve our best, as do the generous people of Bangladesh who cannot be left to shoulder this crisis alone.”
The UNHCR welcomed Bangladesh’s renewed commitment to the refugees, set forth by the interim government’s Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus. “We echo Dr Yunus’s call for continued solidarity from the international community through consistent financial support and helping to ensure their ‘eventual repatriation to Myanmar, with safety, dignity and full rights’.”
“Bangladesh’s humanitarian spirit, at a time of transition for the Bangladeshi people, deserves global appreciation,” the statement said.
A dignified and sustainable return to Myanmar remains the primary solution to this crisis, the UN agency said, calling on the international community to demonstrate the political will to make this possible.
Highlighting the ongoing conflict between Myanmar forces and rebels in Rakhine, the UNHCR also called on the Bangladesh authorities to ensure that civilians fleeing the violence in Myanmar are allowed access to protection in Bangladesh.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also called on all parties to the conflict in Myanmar to end the violence and ensure the protection of civilians, said his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in a briefing.
Guterres also appealed to strengthen regional protection efforts, provide access to conflict-affected communities and further support host countries.
Julie Bishop, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, is engaging all stakeholders, including regional actors, to move towards an inclusive Myanmar-led process for sustainable peace and national reconciliation, Dujarric said.
These are important steps to create conditions conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of the Rohingya people to Myanmar, he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the ongoing humanitarian crisis and human rights violations in Myanmar are making life even harder for many of the country’s ethnic and religious minority groups, especially the Rohingya people.
In a statement yesterday, he said the US stands with the survivors of the Rohingya genocide and is committed to providing life-saving assistance to affected members of Rohingya communities and those affected by the crisis.
Over the past seven years, he said, the US has contributed nearly $2.4 billion and is also conducting extensive documentation of the atrocities and abuses committed against Rohingya and all civilians.
“Our support for the people of Burma in their aspirations for a democratic, inclusive, and peaceful future is unwavering, as are our calls on all parties to protect civilians from harm.”
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the country continues to support international accountability for human rights violations and other abuses.
In a statement, it called on the Myanmar regime to take a different path — cease violence, engage in dialogue and grant safe and unimpeded humanitarian access.
“We support ASEAN’s efforts to resolve the crisis through the work of the ASEAN Chair and Special Envoy and consistent with the Five Point Consensus. We continue to support the people of Myanmar and their aspirations for a return to the path of democracy.”