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By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) - Two United Nations agencies said on Monday that any shortfalls in funding from global donors could have dire consequences for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration issued the warning at the launch of their first joint multi-year funding appeal for food and educational help to Rohingya people who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar for the past eight years.
"Any funding shortfalls in critical areas, including reductions to food assistance, cooking fuel or basic shelter, will have dire consequences for this highly vulnerable population and may force many to resort to desperate measures, such as embarking on dangerous boat journeys to seek safety", the agencies said in a statement.
The agencies, alongside 113 partners, are calling for $934.5 million in its first year of the 2025-2026 appeal, to reach some 1.48 million people in Bangladesh including Rohingya refugees and host communities.
Earlier in March, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) announced potential cuts to food rations for Rohingya refugees following the shutdown of USAID operations, raising fears among aid workers of rising hunger in the overcrowded camps.
WFP said this month the reduction was due to a broad shortfall in donations, not the Trump administration's decision to cut U.S. foreign aid globally, including to USAID. But a senior Bangladeshi official told Reuters that the U.S. decision most likely played a role, as the U.S. has been the top donor for Rohingya refugee aid.
Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges in neighbouring Myanmar mostly in 2016 and 2017, in camps in the southern Cox's Bazar district where they have limited access to jobs or education.
Roughly 70,000 fled to Bangladesh last year, driven in part by growing hunger in their home Rakhine state, Reuters has reported.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by William Maclean)
