Episode: KPN 05-09-2025 

ASEAN seeks funds to prevent Rohingya starvation in Bangladesh

Parliamentarians from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have called for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian fund with the help of member countries to prevent starvation of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

“The World Food Programme warned that food rations will run out after November 2025 unless US$17 million per month is secured,” said Charles Santiago, co-chair of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

The call for humanitarian aid came at a press conference in Dhaka on Sept. 4 after a three-member APHR delegation conducted a four-day-long fact-finding visit to the Rohingya refugee camps and host communities in Cox’s Bazar.

An estimated 1.5 million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, including about 150,000 who fled Myanmar since 2023 amid fighting between the military and the rebel group Arakan Army in the Rakhine State.

In 2017, some 750,000 Rohingya people, mostly Muslims, fled a military crackdown to Bangladesh. No repatriation took place since then, with Rohingya refusing to go back, saying they lack safety and citizenship in Rakhine.

The parliamentarians said the crisis persisted in Bangladesh as the global attention moved to wars in Ukraine and Palestine, and worsened with fund cuts announced by the US government after Donald Trump assumed power in January.

“The humanitarian situation is dire,” said Santiago, a former Malaysian parliamentarian, pointing out that until September, only 37 percent of the required $934 million for this year has been raised so far.

According to the UN, approximately $200 million is required annually to feed the 1.5 million refugees in Bangladesh.

Santiago said, “There is no guaranteed money” after this December. “We talked to the WFP representative, asking what happens then. He said the Rohingya will face starvation,” Santiago said.

The parliamentarians said the Rohingya crisis is an ASEAN issue, and the regional forum of nations should take ownership of the problem rather than leaving it to any single nation to sort out.

“The crisis has serious regional implications. Drug smuggling and human trafficking are already happening in Bangladesh, Thailand, and other parts of ASEAN,” Santiago said.

He said Myanmar has become a “factory to create refugees” with people fleeing not just Rakhine state but also from other states into Thailand, Malaysia, and elsewhere in the region.

Myanmar entered a civil war in February 2021 after its military seized power, overthrowing a democratically elected government in a coup. With armed resistance groups fighting the junta, thousands of villagers have fled their country to safer places.

In a statement, the APHR suggested a high-level meeting involving all ASEAN members, Bangladesh, and China to address the Rohingya crisis.

China has both financial and political clout in Myanmar and could play a role in peace-building and reconciliation, Santiago said.

“China’s inclusion is considered crucial because China is the most important player in Myanmar at this time. It is a friend of the Myanmar State Administration Council and also of the Arakan Army,” he added.

How can China become a global power if it fails to address the regional problems it has a stake in? he said.

“ASEAN principle is non-interference in the political issues of other countries, but when it is something genocidal, it cannot and should not remain silent,” Santiago added.

Robert Mickens has been reporting and commenting on the Vatican and the Catholic Church the past four decades through his celebrated weekly Letter from Rome.

Mickens arrived in Rome in 1986 to study theology at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University. And he has remained in the Eternal City ever since. His voice, shaped by decades in Rome, continues to inform and inspire readers around the world.

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