UK announces $3.7M in new humanitarian support for Rohingya in Bangladesh

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - The UK on Tuesday announced a new funding of £3 million ($3.7 million) for the Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh.

“I am pleased to announce a further UK contribution of £3,000,000 to UNHCR, which will help to ensure refugees in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char are able to access healthcare, clean water, hygiene and sanitation services and cooking fuel,” said Sir Philip Barton, permanent under-secretary at the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, who landed in Dhaka on Monday for a two-day visit.

The UK will provide the new funding through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Barton said: “Six years since the atrocities of 2017, which forced Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, the UK continues to stand with the Rohingya, Bangladesh, and all those affected by this crisis.

“We continue to push for a long-term solution that will enable the refugees to return to Myanmar on a safe, voluntary and dignified basis, when the conditions there allow. Until that time, the UK is committed to supporting the Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh.”

More than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims forcibly displaced from Myanmar live in congested camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal.

Most of the refugees fled a brutal military crackdown in August 2017 in Rakhine, a state on the western coast of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Barton, who is in Dhaka for the fifth UK-Bangladesh Strategic Dialogue, said the dialogue reflects the two countries’ shared commitment to develop a modern economic, trade and security partnership, said a statement on Tuesday from the UK High Commission in Dhaka.