WFP warns Rohingya food vouchers in Bangladesh will be cut in half

# WFP warns Rohingya food vouchers in Bangladesh will be cut in half

Event date: 2025-03-06. The United Nations World Food Programme says it will be forced to halve monthly food vouchers for about one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh because of severe funding shortfalls.

The evidence packet says the cut will reduce vouchers from $12.50 to $6 per person starting next month. It also quotes Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, as confirming the reduction and warning that the consequences will be severe because the current support is already not enough.

The Rohingya population in Bangladesh has lived under sustained pressure for years. Most fled violent purges in Myanmar in 2016 and 2017 and are now concentrated in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, where they have limited access to work and education. The packet says successive aid cuts have already driven widespread hardship and malnutrition.

The new reduction arrives just before a planned visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is expected to meet refugees during Ramadan. That timing gives the announcement added political weight, even though the packet does not say the visit directly affected the decision.

The source is careful on the cause of the shortfall. It says the funding gap stems from a broader collapse in donations, not solely from the Trump administration’s global foreign-aid freeze, though the US move is expected to hit health facilities and other services in the camps. Rahman said five US-funded hospitals have reduced services, while waste management and general operations are being squeezed.

The packet also reminds readers that the United States was the largest donor to the Rohingya response in 2024, contributing more than half of the funds and about $300 million. That figure helps explain why any US policy shift can reverberate quickly through camp life, even when the immediate WFP announcement is framed as a general funding crisis.

The humanitarian implications are straightforward. Food vouchers are not a side issue in a setting where refugees have little ability to earn money or leave the camps. The packet says a previous cut in 2023 triggered sharp increases in hunger and malnutrition, later reversed after pressure and further review.

This latest reduction, if carried through, will force the Rohingya to stretch the most basic support even further. The source material does not offer a solution. It does, however, make clear that without additional donor funding, the WFP sees no way to keep rations at their current level.