The German government announced additional funds worth around €12 million ($13 million) on Monday to support the persecuted Rohingya Muslims living in Bangladeshi refugee camps and in Myanmar.
Susanne Fries-Gaier, director for humanitarian assistance in Germany's Foreign Ministry, made the announcement after visiting refugee camps in south-eastern Bangladesh, according to a press statement by the German embassy in Dhaka.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of fresh cuts to the refugees' food vouchers triggered by a funding shortage at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the devastation caused by a tropical cyclone last month.
The statement said that about €5.34 million of the total allocation will go towards the WFP, given that it was was forced to reduce each refugee's monthly food ration to the equivalent of €8.57, or $8, per person in Bangladeshi camps this month, down from $10.
Germany has already contributed €15 million this year, €2 million of which was food aid, to support the stateless Rohingya Muslims, nearly 750,000 of whom crossed into Bangladesh fleeing a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017.
More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims living in Bangladeshi camps after they fled persecution in Myanmar depend largely on humanitarian assistance.
The cuts to the monthly food ration have put the lives of hundreds of thousands of refugees at risk as thousands of refugees' homes were devastated by tropical cyclone Mocha on May 14.
Fries-Gaier, who also met Bangladeshi officials and NGO representatives during her four-day visit that ended on Monday, expressed Germany's firm commitment to support the refugees. She stressed that the humanitarian response must be more sustainable by extending the donor base to non-traditional actors.
Any repatriation of refugees to Myanmar must happen in a voluntary, informed, dignified and lasting way, she said according to the press statement.
