Time to help Rohingya refugees

HUMANITARIAN AID

- KANNAVEE SUEBSANG MERCY CHRIESTY BARENDS ANDREW HUDSON

Just over eight years since 700,000 Rohingya were forced out of Myanmar over the border into Bangladesh in what the UN has described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing," people continue to languish in camps in Cox's Bazar without access to work or education. Those remaining in Myanmar are largely confined to internally displaced camps, or forcibly conscripted to fight for the military junta.

As the US, UK and other major governments make huge cuts to their foreign aid budgets, the situation has become even more dire. The World Food Programme has warned that food aid for Rohingya may run out in November if additional international funding is not found.

Regional governments and experts last month met at the 14th meeting of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration. We are concerned that deteriorating conditions will force an increasing number of Rohingya to flee Myanmar and Cox's Bazar by sea in the coming months.

These routes are dangerous and are usually facilitated by traffickers and smugglers who do not have refugees' best interests at heart. Nearly one in five people who attempted to take boats on this route so far in 2025 have died or gone missing — making the Andaman Sea among the deadliest in the world. In May, two boats tragically sank off the coast of Myanmar, killing 427 Rohingya on board. It was several weeks until it made news.