The United Kingdom has pledged to provide an aid package worth 47.5 million pounds ($62.4 million) to support the more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on Thursday, adding that a portion of the funds will be used to help the Bangladeshi authorities tackle COVID-19 and natural disasters
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) The United Kingdom has pledged to provide an aid package worth 47.5 million Pounds ($62.4 million) to support the more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on Thursday, adding that a portion of the funds will be used to help the Bangladeshi authorities tackle COVID-19 and natural disasters.
"The UK will today pledge �47.5 million to provide life-saving support for Rohingya refugees and to help Bangladesh with its response to the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters," the Foreign Office said in a press release.
According to data provided by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), roughly 800,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh, with the bulk having sought refuge from August 2017 to June 2019, when fighting between the government forces and Arakan Army, a Buddhist rebel group, was at its fiercest.
As many as 860,000 Rohingya Muslims are currently residing in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh's Cox Bazar, the Foreign Office said, and Dominic Raab, the UK's foreign secretary, called on the international community to take greater action to ensure that the plight of the Rohingya is not forgotten.
"Today I urge the world not to turn away from the Rohingya's suffering and to take the action necessary to allow them to safely return to the homes they fled in terror," Raab stated.
The UK is scheduled to co-host a virtual donor conference later in the day aimed at galvanizing support for Rohingya Muslims. The United States, European Union, and UNHCR will also co-host the event.
