Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced nearly $26 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the region. It will provide help for those people in Burma affected by ongoing violence, and for communities hosting refugees from Burma.
With this new funding, U.S. total assistance for those affected by the Rakhine State and Rohingya crisis has reached nearly $2.1 billion since August 2017, when over 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to safety in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
“This new funding allows our humanitarian partners to continue providing lifesaving assistance to affected communities on both sides of the Burma-Bangladesh border,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price:
“Including nearly 980,000 Rohingya refugees hosted by Bangladesh, some 740,000 of whom arrived in the months following August 2017 when they were forced to flee genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and other horrific atrocities and abuses perpetrated by Burma’s military in Rakhine State. This funding will also provide assistance to nearly 540,000 Bangladeshi host community members and to others affected by ongoing violence in Burma.”
Secretary Blinken in a statement “urge(d) other donors to contribute robustly to the humanitarian response and increase support to those driven from and affected by violence in Burma.”
“The United States appreciates the generosity of the Government of Bangladesh and other nations and the hospitality of the Bangladeshi people in hosting Rohingya refugees, especially now that we are in the sixth year of this protracted crisis,” said spokesperson Price:
“We remain committed to working towards durable solutions to the crisis, and we’ll continue to partner with the Government of Bangladesh, the Rohingya community, host communities, and people inside Burma to ensure a coordinated and well-supported response to this humanitarian crisis. The international community must remain steadfast in our commitment to alleviating the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable people, including through the Rohingya crisis response.”
The United States supports the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return and reintegration of displaced Rohingya when conditions in Burma allow. “An essential step in ending this crisis is ending the military regime’s brutal repression of its people and agreeing to a pathway to an inclusive multiparty democracy,” declared Secretary Blinken. Until then, the United States commends its humanitarian partners for the lifesaving work they continue to do every day.
