EU tops aid for Rohingya with €10M

BRUSSELS

The EU will grant €10 million (approx. $11 million) additional funds for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as internally displaced people in Myanmar, the European Commission announced on Monday.

The EU decided earlier this year to provide €33 million (approx. $36.5 million) assistance to refugees, displaced people, and host communities across Myanmar's northern Rakhine State and the border district of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

The EU decided to top up the humanitarian aid after the violence escalated in Myanmar and further deteriorated the humanitarian situation in Rakhine State and Bangladesh. The aid will support food provision, health care, and protection for the 1 million refugees in Bangladesh, as well as the internally displaced people in Myanmar.

“Today's additional funding is another clear sign that the EU remains committed to stand by the side of the Rohingya for as long as it takes,” the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management commented on Monday. Janez Lenarcic added that “the EU continues to work to secure the conditions for the safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya to Myanmar.”

Myanmar's military launched a brutal campaign on the entire Muslim Rohingya minority in 2017 to retaliate for alleged attacks on security forces by militants -- for which the government blames Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army -- forcing hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, to flee Myanmar and cross into Bangladesh.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the Ontario International Development Agency report titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.