News:
Cox’s Bazar currently hosts the world’s largest refugee population with approximately 700,000 people having crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017.
The plight of people living in temporary shelters and camps in Cox’s Bazar is likely to worsen over the coming months, as the monsoon and cyclone season brings heavy rains, and likely flooding and landslides.
$3 million has been directed to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to provide life-saving protection, nutrition, healthcare and shelter assistance, and to implement urgently-needed shelter upgrades and disaster preparedness measures in Bangladesh.
New Zealand has also contributed $1 million to the Myanmar Humanitarian Fund, which supports national and local humanitarian agencies to respond to humanitarian needs across Myanmar.
New Zealand remains concerned about the situation in Myanmar, including continuing conflicts, and calls for a credible, independent investigation into alleged human rights abuses, and unimpeded access to allow humanitarian assistance to be delivered to those in need.
This contribution brings the total New Zealand humanitarian support to the Rohingya crisis and Myanmar to $8.39 million since September last year.