Rohingya refugees gather at roadside kitchen market, at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh March 15, 2025. — Reuters pic
By MMNN Editorial Team | 12 July 2025
Geneva/Cox’s Bazar — The United Nations has issued an urgent warning that essential humanitarian services for over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are on the brink of collapse due to a critical funding shortfall. With only 35% of the required US$255 million (approximately RM1.08 billion) appeal funded, food, healthcare, and education services face drastic cuts in the coming months.
“These funding gaps will affect the daily survival of Rohingya refugees,” said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch in Geneva. “They rely entirely on humanitarian aid for their most basic needs.”
The Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority persecuted for decades in Myanmar, continue to face violence and discrimination in Rakhine State. The largest exodus occurred in 2017 when over 750,000 fled a brutal military crackdown, seeking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. Since then, the population in the overcrowded camps of Cox’s Bazar has swelled to over a million, with 150,000 new arrivals reported in the past 18 months alone.
UNHCR warned that health services will begin shutting down by September, and food assistance will cease by December unless donors step in immediately. The global humanitarian sector has faced significant funding cuts from major contributors—especially the United States and Western nations now redirecting resources to military priorities amid geopolitical tensions with Russia and China.
“This is the worst global funding environment we’ve faced in decades,” Baloch said. “But if we abandon the Rohingya now, it will push a traumatised community already on the edge into deeper despair.”
Despite the hardship, Bangladesh has continued to host the refugees with remarkable generosity. But without sustained international support, the fragile humanitarian infrastructure risks total breakdown—a scenario that would further endanger this already vulnerable population.
Editorial Note:
It is a bitter irony that the same world powers who once condemned the Myanmar military for its crimes against humanity now shrink from their obligations to assist the victims. The Rohingya crisis is not merely a funding issue—it is a moral test for the international community. A people denied citizenship, persecuted at home, and now neglected in exile cannot be left to starve silently in the world’s largest refugee camp.
If global leaders truly believe in human dignity, justice, and the lessons of history, then now is the time to act—not with words, but with renewed commitment and meaningful support.
