Additional Humanitarian Assistance for the Burma and Bangladesh Regional Crisis

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

During the launch of the 2023 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh today, the Department of State announced nearly $26 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the region, for those people in Burma affected by ongoing violence, and for communities hosting refugees from Burma.  With this new funding, our total assistance for those affected by the Rakhine State and Rohingya crisis has reached nearly $2.1 billion since August 2017, when over 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to safety in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

This new funding includes nearly $24 million for programs specifically in Bangladesh, providing life-sustaining support to nearly 980,000 Rohingya refugees, many of them survivors of genocide, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, and support to nearly 540,000 host community members in Bangladesh.  This assistance sees to it that children and young adults have access to education and vocational training, provides families with food and clean water, strengthens sanitation systems to prevent the spread of disease, supports the protection of Rohingya refugees’ human rights and well-being, bolsters disaster preparedness, and helps combat the effects of climate change.  We urge other donors to contribute robustly to the humanitarian response and increase support to those driven from and affected by violence in Burma.

The United States recognizes the generosity of the government and people of Bangladesh and other countries hosting refugees from Burma in the region particularly given that this is the sixth year of this protracted crisis.  We are committed to finding lasting solutions to this crisis, including the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return and reintegration of displaced Rohingya when conditions in Burma allow.  An essential step in ending this crisis is ending the military regime’s brutal repression of its people and agreeing to a pathway to an inclusive multiparty democracy. We commend our humanitarian partners for the lifesaving work they continue to do every day.