New US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas has announced that Washington is providing $152 million in new humanitarian assistance for nearly one million Rohingya refugees and Bangladesh host communities.
“This brings the total we’ve provided since August 2017 to $1.7 billion,” said Ambassador Haas, following his first visit to the Rohingya camps since the U.S. Secretary of State’s determination that members of the Burmese military committed genocide.
Antony Blinken announced on March 21 he had determined that members of the Burmese military had committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
“Of this new funding, $125 million is for programs inside Bangladesh — for Rohingya refugees and affected Bangladeshi communities,” the new ambassador was quoted as saying in a US embassy statement on Tuesday.
Ambassador Haas visited Cox’s Bazar from March 27-29 to meet with local government officials and see how U.S. programs continue to assist Rohingya refugees and host communities by providing healthcare, training to fight fires in the camps, protecting the environment, strengthening climate disaster resilience, and providing secure food distribution.
“I am heartened by the strong collaborative relationship with humanitarian agencies working in the camps and host communities in Cox’s Bazar,” Ambassador Haas said.
While in Cox’s Bazar, Ambassador Haas visited Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) Commissioner Shah Rezwan Hayat and Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Md. Mamunur Rashid. The ambassador expressed appreciation for the resumption of regular activities in the camps, particularly that learning centers were open again, providing education and ensuring that Rohingya do not lose a generation to learning.
Ambassador Haas also visited a UNHCR program that engages refugees and host communities to rehabilitate the environment, clean up and prevent pollution of waterways, increase resilience to climate change by reducing disaster risks from landslides, floods, and fires. The program emphasized nature-based solutions such as planting trees to stabilize hillsides, water quality management and establishing water reservoirs.
Ambassador Haas also saw volunteer firefighters using newly developed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mobile fire units equipped with backpacks with pumps and transport capacities during a fire-containment training demonstration. The USAID project is producing and delivering 450 mobile fire units and 3,000 20-liter firefighting backpacks to the camps and will train 3,000 refugee volunteer firefighters to use and maintain the equipment, helping to prevent and respond to fires. This project will be expanded to all camps by 2023.
He also visited a field lab, a healthcare center accessible to members of the host community, and a liquified petroleum gas distribution center that reduces the need to collect firewood for fuel, reduces pressure on local forests, and protects women and girls at risk of gender-based violence while collecting wood.
The ambassador’s delegation also saw how a program funded by USAID and the World Food Program provides emergency food assistance to Rohingya refugees with monthly e-vouchers used to purchase basic food commodities from 21 outlets owned by local host community vendors, including fresh eggs, vegetables, and fruit.
In Fiscal Year 2021 alone, the U.S. government spent nearly $302 million for the Rohingya crisis humanitarian assistance programs in Bangladesh.
