EU Gives 5mln Euro for Rohingya Food Aid
"Today's additional funding is another clear sign that the EU remains committed to stand by the side of the Rohingya for as long as it takes," said Christos Stylianides, commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management.
Stylianides said that food assistance is an absolute necessity, and the European Commission will continue to support both Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh throughout this crisis.
"Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar District of Bangladesh rely entirely on humanitarian aid for their survival. The additional EU funding will provide urgently needed food assistance to refugees, while ensuring access to food throughout the camps, makeshift settlements and host communities," reads a press release issued yesterday.
More than 750,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh over the past year to escape the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. They joined about 200,000 refugees who had fled previous waves of violence and persecution. A UN fact-finding mission found “sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw [armed forces] on charges of genocide.”
The Myanmar government has rejected these allegations. It has said that it is ready to accept repatriated refugees and has accused Bangladesh of delaying the process. However, the Myanmar authorities have done nothing to address the root causes of the crisis, including systematic persecution and violence, statelessness, and impunity for grave violations by the military. Myanmar has refused to acknowledge the Rohingya ethnicity of the refugees or to recognize them as its citizens.
The Rohingya fear that upon return, they will be placed in detention camps. They point out that more than 124,000 Rohingya have been similarly confined for six years, since being displaced by violence in 2012.
Since 2017, the European Commission has allocated almost €115 million to the Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh, including €30 million announced during the Pledging Conference on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis, which the EU co-hosted in October 2017.
Source: The Daily Star
