DHAKA: The impact of the US–Israel war on Iran has already reached Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, where refugees say spillover effects are compounding the existing crisis of displacement and shrinking humanitarian aid.
Bangladesh relies on imports for 95 percent of its energy needs and has been struggling to secure supplies of crude and gas from key sources in the Middle East since the beginning of the war on Feb. 28.
Supplies to refugee camps come from these imports, too, through the UN refugee agency — UNHCR — and the International Organization for Migration.
“Bangladesh relies heavily on imports for its fuel needs, and we rely on Bangladeshi suppliers for the LPG to be delivered to refugees in the camps,” UNHCR spokesperson Mosharaf Hossain told Arab News.
“Should the LPG supply drop, Rohingya families will have no alternative but to collect firewood from nearby forests or burn biomass or plastic to cook … A return to firewood use will undo years of environmental recovery.”
More than 1.3 million Rohingya are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar district on the southeast coast of Bangladesh.
Most of them fled a military crackdown in their native Rakhine state in Myanmar in 2017 — a deadly campaign that the UN has classified as ethnic cleansing.
In Bangladesh, they are dependent on international aid, which has recorded a significant drop since 2021, with humanitarian organizations facing difficulties in covering the costs of education, healthcare and food.
At the beginning of April, the UN’s food agency, the World Food Programme, cut food assistance in Cox’s Bazar camps for most of the refugees, reducing rations for two-thirds of them from $12 to $10 or $7 per month, based on the severity of their family’s needs.
“We have already been struggling with many crises, and this war pushed us into even more severe conditions,” said Sayed Ullah, acting president of the United Council of Rohingya, a rights body in Cox’s Bazar camps.
“On one hand, my food allocation budget has been reduced, and on the other hand, the war has caused a price hike in the commodity market … In the current situation, I cannot maintain a proper diet for my family and buy nutritious food for my three children.”
The rising prices of fuel and essential goods have affected daily life in the camps — not only cooking but also transportation and small income activities, making it harder for hundreds of thousands of families to manage their basic needs.
Mohammad Arif, a teacher at a community school in Cox’s Bazar camps, told Arab News that the support of Rohingya migrant workers in the Middle Eastern countries has also dropped as the war has affected their jobs and they are no longer able to send money to their relatives.
“Many families in the camps fell into much more hardship. Rohingya mothers are forced to compromise with food and nutrition of their children. Around 40 to 50 percent of families are managing this shortfall,” Arif said.
“Even small changes in the global situation affect the already fragile living conditions in the camps, and some people are illegally going to other countries, risking their lives due to this crisis.”
