UN Secretary General arrives at Bangladesh to visit Rohingya refugee fields and promoting help

Dhaka, Bangladesh – UN Secretary General, António Guterres, arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday on a four -day visit to review the situation of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees In the midst of fear of aid cuts That could seriously affect them.

Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Advisor Touhid Hossain received Gutterres at the Dhaka main airport.

Guterres’s visit, which is his second in the country, is considered crucial after the announcement of possible aid cuts by the World Food Program, or PMA, and others after the decision of Washington to close the USAID operations.

The interim government, which came to power in August after the expulsion of Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina In a massive uprising in Bangladesh, he hopes that the visit will strengthen international efforts to mobilize aid for Rohingya refugees and attract new global attention to the Rohingya crisis.

The PMA, the UN Food Agency, told refugee authorities earlier this month that food rations could go into force from April 1 in Cox’s Bazar, where dozens of fields are inhabited by Rohingya refugees.

The agency said that food rations could be half, or $ 6, from the $ 12.50 existing per month.

In a message for Associated Press, the WFP recently said that if the fund cuts would be effective as of next month they would depend on obtaining appropriate funds that need to execute its operations.

The PMA spokesman, Kun Li, said they were “actively mobilizing funds” to avoid any reduction in food assistance for Rohingya refugees. If the agency cannot obtain enough funds, $ 81 million to maintain operations until the end of the year, including $ 15 million necessary for April, they will have no choice but to reduce rations from April.

The main advisor of Guterres and Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, will visit the Rohingya camps in the southern Bazar district of Cox on Friday.

On Saturday, Guterres will hold a meeting with Yunus in his office in Dhaka, the capital. A joint informative session of the media is scheduled for later on Saturday.

An interim government in Bangladesh had said before The end of USAID payments It would stop other projects in Bangladesh, but financing for Rohingya refugees would continue to flow.

The United States has been the main donor of Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees, providing the United Nations Assistance of Emergency Food and Nutrition. The United States generally provides almost half of the help money spent in the humanitarian response to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which provided about $ 300 million in 2024.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have lived in Bangladesh for decades and around 70,000 crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024. During the fight with the Military Board, the opposition force known as the Arakan’s army took over the state of Rakhine where Rohingya was displaced and took refuge in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh says REFATERCRIENCY OF REFUGIATES For Myanmar, accused in an international court of genocide against Rohingya, it is the definitive solution of the crisis, but the complexities about verification and other diplomatic and political problems have made the future of refugees bleak.