EU gives €40m humanitarian aid for Bangladesh, Myanmar

The European Commission has released €40 million in humanitarian aid to provide life-saving support to vulnerable Rohingya civilians and host communities in Bangladesh and across Myanmar's Rakhine State.

This comes on top of the €51 million the Commission mobilised in 2017, according to a press release of the European Commission issued in Brussels today.

"The Rohingya crisis has reached unprecedented proportions in recent months with hundreds of thousands of people in need of humanitarian assistance. The EU is committed to helping those most in need, both in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Our emergency aid will deliver essential supplies such as food, clean water and healthcare as well as support for the monsoon season," said Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides, who visited EU aid projects in Bangladesh and Myanmar last year.

Out of the funding announced today, €29 million will go to the Cox's Bazar district in Bangladesh to deliver food, nutritional support, clean water and sanitation facilities, access to health care services, as well as increased protection for the most vulnerable groups among refugees and host communities. Another €7 million will be used to scale up preparedness measures for the rainy season, which could trigger floods and landslides in what is currently the most densely populated refugee camp in the world. €4 million will go for Rohingya and host communities in Myanmar's Rakhine State and provide protection, shelter, health, water, sanitation, food and psychosocial support.

The European Union has been funding humanitarian programmes in Cox's Bazar since 1994 through international NGOs and the UN. Today's emergency aid brings the total funding for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to more than €86 million since 2007.

Additionally, since 2010, the European Union has provided close to €81 million in humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people in Myanmar's Rakhine State, including in the more isolated northern areas. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was also activated in October 2017 to provide assistance in Cox's Bazar.

Following major outbreaks of violence in Myanmar in August 2017, over 400,000 Rohingyas and host communities are currently in need of humanitarian assistance in Rakhine State, while about 700,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed the border into neighbouring Bangladesh. It is estimated that nearly one million Rohingyas are now living in camps and settlements across Cox's Bazar, bringing the total number of people in need of assistance to 1.3 million between the refugees and host communities living in the district. In addition, the refugee camps are extremely vulnerable to the flash flooding and mud landslides triggered by the ongoing monsoon season, which typically lasts until October and could put 200,000 lives at risk.