Looming Food Ration Cuts Force Rohingya Families in the World's Largest Refugee Settlement to Make Desperate Decisions in Order to Survive

Cox's Bazar, BANGLADESH, (March 13, 2025) – Amir*, 39, a father of three, fears that if food rations are cut in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh next month, families will have no choice but to make desperate decisions, including to send their children away on dangerous boat journeys to survive and support their families.

With just a few weeks to go until the food ration cuts take effect, desperation inside the camps is growing, several families told Save the Children.

"Mental pressure will increase for those who do not have any income source, which will lead to physical illness. Human trafficking in the camp may increase, as many families, driven by poverty, will hand over their daughters to traffickers."

"Now, impoverished families will send their teenage sons outside the camp for work. The incidents of journeys to Malaysia by sea for job searching will increase."

Due to severe funding shortfalls and without urgent new funding, monthly food rations for Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar will be halved starting next month, from $12.50 to $6.00 per person a month – just as refugees prepare to celebrate Eid, marking the end of Ramadan, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said.[1]

About one million people live in the camps in Cox's Bazar, including more than 500,000 children, with over 15% of those under the age of 5 malnourished – an emergency threshold - UNICEF warned earlier this month.[2]

Last year, more than 7,800 Rohingya refugees embarked on perilous boat journeys, an increase of 80% over 2023.[3] Children made up just under half of the predominantly Rohingya refugees leaving Bangladesh and Myanmar by boat in 2024, with numbers continuing to rise.

Those attempting sea journeys are often at the mercy of human traffickers and are at risk of abuse at sea. Traffickers and smugglers often use rickety wooden boats to try and reach neighboring countries, such as Malaysia, usually during the calmer seas from October to April.

One of the factors driving Rohingya people onto boats has been the deteriorating security in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, including kidnappings for ransom, abductions and the recruitment of children by Rohingya armed groups in Bangladesh. Large-scale fires, flooding and landslides inside the camps also put people at risk.

Sufiya, 46, who is sick and depends on humanitarian aid like most people in the camps as Rohingya refugees are not allowed to work, said food security is one way to ensure more peace in the camps:

"If there is peace in the stomach, then the world will also be at peace."

Save the Children has been working in Cox's Bazar since 2012 and has increased activities significantly following the 2017 exodus of refugees to Bangladesh with programs in education, health and nutrition, food, water, shelter and child protection services. However, underfunding has severely hampered humanitarian efforts to support refugees and hosts in Bangladesh.

Shumon Sengupta, Country Director, Save the Children in Bangladesh:

"We urge donors and the public to step up funding to the Rohingya refugee response now so that we can prevent a hunger crisis that could push more families to send their children away on dangerous boat journeys. A broader humanitarian crisis may be around the corner without sustained financial backing. This puts half a million Rohingya children and their families at risk."

Save the Children is one of the leading international NGOs working in the Cox's Bazar camps in Bangladesh, providing child protection, access to learning, health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene services, and distribution of shelter and food items. We have reached about 600,000 Rohingya refugees, including more than 320,000 children since the response began in 2017.

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REFERENCES

[1] UNHCR: https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar#powerbi

[2] Geneva Palais briefing note: Malnutrition tightening its grip on children in Rohingya refugee Camps

[3] Save the Children: Children make up nearly half of Rohingya refugees taking perilous boat journeys in 2024 as numbers continue to rise