UN set to revise Bangladesh funding appeal over Rohingya refugee crisis

The United Nations Office in Dhaka is preparing to make a “massive” funding request to manage the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

“Bangladesh will not be alone,” UN Resident Coordinator in Dhaka Robert Watkins said in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

He sat with bdnews24.com having just come back from Cox’s Bazar where over 420,000 Rohingyas took shelter in three weeks, fleeing Rakhine violence.

He said they will shortly launch the funding request for 1.2 million people including local host community.

“We are looking at a massive request of funding. We have been organising meetings with the international donor community here in Bangladesh. Then, the next revised appeal is going to be so much larger,” he said.

The UN had initially asked for $78 million funding to meet the emergency needs of the 300,000 Rohnigyas for three months. But the number is rising every day.

Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

The UN agencies fear 500,000 or 600,000 more Rohingyas may come to Bangladesh by the year-end.

The UN resident coordinator said the new funding appeal would be targeting those who were here before Aug 25 and who came later following the violence and the local Bangladeshi host community.

“You could quadruple the previous amount in the new request. But that is for only three months,” said Watkins, whose tenure has been extended for a month to facilitate relief operations for the refugees.

One Bangladeshi economist has estimated that at least $1 billion would be needed to ensure very basic needs of the Rohingyas residing in Bangladesh to date.

Watkins said they would definitely help Bangladesh.

“Bangladeshi people are helping in the immediate response. We have to help those people because they are already in difficult situation.”

“We are going to keep asking for more assistance from different governments around the world.”

Rohingya refugees scrambled for relief materials at Palongkhali in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar on Saturday as aid workers threw clothes from a truck. Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

He said Bangladesh has already allowed the refugees in its land, putting a lot of stress on the services, infrastructure that are in place.

“… that’s going to continue, unfortunately,” he said. “While we want to help refugees, we want to help Bangladeshi people also.”

Watkins thanked the donors as the previous request for $78 million was completely covered by the donations of different governments.

He, however, suggested Bangladeshis who are going to distribute food and clothes among the refugees to do so through the government channels to avoid chaos.