UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is leaving for a four-day visit to Bangladesh on Thursday, where he will meet with Rohingya refugees who are at risk of humanitarian aid cuts.
About one million members of the persecuted, mostly Muslim Rohingya minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar.
The gradual reduction in aid has caused serious hardship among the Rohingya in already overcrowded settlements, where many are dependent on aid and suffer from widespread malnutrition. Guterres is scheduled to visit the largest relief camp on Friday for a meal to break the evening fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“The Bangladesh government believes that this visit will bring the Rohingya crisis back to the forefront of global discussion,” government spokesman Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Wednesday. The United Nations World Food Program announced earlier this month that monthly food vouchers will have to be cut from $12.50 per person to $6.00 due to a severe funding shortfall.
According to the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, young people in the camps are experiencing the worst levels of malnutrition since 2017. Admissions for treatment for severe acute malnutrition in February increased by 27 percent compared to the same month in 2024.
Ensuring additional assistance
The Rohingya camps have been affected since US President Donald Trump reviewed and suspended foreign aid in January. Rana Flowers, UNICEF’s representative in Bangladesh, told reporters this week that canceled US grants to Bangladesh accounted for about a quarter of her organization’s Rohingya refugee response spending.
The Bangladesh government has said it is exploring ways to ensure more humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees. “Our government does not want to compromise on the nutritional needs of the Rohingya in any way,” Alam said, “but international support is needed.” According to the Bangladesh government, more than 100,000 refugees are expected to attend an iftar (evening meal) with Guterres on Friday evening.
Guterres is also scheduled to meet with the de facto Bangladeshi leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took office in August last year after a student-led uprising ousted the authoritarian former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
