Starving the stateless

Express Tribune

01-05-2025

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Isn't it hard to fathom surviving on just 20 cents a day? But as of April 1, over 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are stuck living on exactly that. After seven years in crammed camps — no citizenship, no healthcare, no education, no dignity, no work, no future — they now scrape by on six dollars a month. Just six! That's what a coffee goes for in New York. And that's what the so-called free world passes off as enough for people who've already been stripped of everything.
This latest cut announced by the World Food Program isn't just a temporary stumble; it's the slow, grain-by-grain erosion of human dignity. In 2023, rations slid from $12 to $10 to $8 before briefly ticking up to $12.50 following a global outcry. But even that barely made a dent as malnutrition spiked, leaving children sicker and mothers weaker. Now it's back down to $6 and there's no spinning that.
It's no longer humanitarian assistance. It's abandonment - and indignity — when a basic camp meal costs around 50 cents and refugees are handed just 20 cents a day that can't even buy half a meal (much like showing up to dinner with just enough for the tip). Rohingya families are already skipping meals, stretching scraps and choosing who eats and who doesn't.
The WFP chalks it up to donor fatigue. The US, like much of the world, has tuned out. Funds have been siphoned off toward newer, more politically palatable crises like Ukraine. The Rohingya aren't trending in headlines anymore and are invisible in Mr Trump's transactional and deal-driven worldview. But aid shouldn't hinge on trends and political payoffs because humanitarianism loses its name when it plays favorites.
Hosting over a million refugees - more than some countries' entire populations — while juggling its own crises is an exhausting burden for Bangladesh. The countries that once condemned Myanmar's ethnic cleansing — the US, the UK, EU and the Gulf states — have faded from the moral spotlight. It's easy to say 'never again' in front of a microphone but it's harder to bankroll the meals that sustain survivors.
As the world stalls, ramifications pile up. Hunger doesn't just weaken bodies; it tears at the social fabric. Starving people don't just stand quietly in line for the next scrap of aid. They move. They flee. They board boats. They do whatever it takes. For the Rohingya, that could mean falling prey to traffickers, risking deadly sea journeys or being lured by militants offering a sense of purpose.
History has it that desperation breeds radicalisation. Reports from Cox's Bazar, as The Independent notes, warn that shadowy commanders are rallying refugees to their cause. And the arrest of Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi — amid slashed aid and empty promises - could further exacerbate this radicalisation.
Speaking of hollow promises, Myanmar has recently claimed 180,000 Rohingya could be 'eligible' to return. Sounds promising until we remember this is the same regime that orchestrated their genocide; the same regime that signed a repatriation deal in 2017, delivering almost nothing. Fewer than a thousand returned but even that felt more like coerced deportation than homecoming because a return without safety, freedom and citizenship isn't a solution; it's a trap dressed up as democracy.
Let's not sugarcoat it. The Rohingya are being boxed in from every angle: Myanmar doesn't want them; Bangladesh can't sustain them; the world refuses to feed them.
Enough paralysis! Something has to give. The path forward starts with the basics. Rations must be restored. Not next year. Not next month. Not when headlines return. Not when it's politically convenient. Not after more Rohingya die quietly in the margins — now!
Wealthy nations must open their wallets and stop pretending they can't hear the sirens of impending calamity. But money alone won't cut it. The Rohingya need real avenues: farming, microbusinesses, basic autonomy or anything that lets them reclaim control of their lives. The world must also push Myanmar to repeal its 1982 citizenship law and offer Rohingya a real future.