The most vulnerable external aid discounts hurt the world’s largest refugee camp Rohingya

Cox Bazaar, Bangladesh – The voice of children in playing through the green corridors is frequented by one of the dozens of refugee camps on the outskirts of Bazaar Cox, a thick, coastal town in southeastern Bangladesh.

Only for a moment, the voices managed to reduce the harsh living conditions faced by more than a million people living here The largest refugee camp in the world.

It is described as the most persecuted people on this planet, Muslim refugees in the Rohingya in Bangladesh It may now be one of the most forgotten population in the world, after eight years of ethnic cleansing of their homes in Myanmar neighboring by a Buddhist military regime.

“The Cox is zero because of the effect of budget discounts on people with desperate needs,” United Nations Secretary -General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the sprawling camps in May.

The visit of the United Nations President of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, was overcome by overcoming USAID Agency (USAID)Which has stopped many major projects in the camps, and the UK announces discounts in external aid to increase defense spending.

Health care in the camps has suffered like Severe strikes for foreigners Help bite.

They call me “Langra” (lame)

When he sat outside his temporary bamboo hut, Jahid Allam told Al -Jazeera how, before forcing him to become a refugee, he was working as a farmer, and he was hunting to live in the Nabora area in his homeland, Myanmar. At that time, in 2016, he noticed for the first time an inflation leg without a clear reason.

Allam said: “I was planting and suddenly felt this desire for the itching of my left leg,” Allam said. “My leg quickly turned red and started swelling. She rushed home and tried to put some ice on him. But it didn’t help.”

A local doctor prescribed ointment, but itching continued, as well as swelling.

He soon found it difficult to stand or walk and is no longer able to work, to rely on his family members.

A year later, when the Myanmar army began burning the Rohingya homes in its village and torturing women, he decided to send his family to Bangladesh.

Allam remained behind him to take care of cows at home. But the army soon threatened to leave and join his family in the neighboring Bangladesh.

The 53 -year -old doctors were treated by MSF, known as his first letters of MSF, in the Kotopalong area of ​​Bazar Cox since its arrival, but it seems that his leg amputated. While some doctors have said that he suffers from villas – an infection that causes the expansion and swelling of the limbs – no final diagnosis has yet been made.

Along with the disease, you must also deal with the stain of shame because of its disability.

“They call me” Langra, “he said when they see that I cannot walk properly.”

But he adds: “If God gave me this disease and disability, he also gave me the opportunity to come to this camp and try to recover. In the near future, I know that I can start a new and better life.”

“Amma” gives me hope “

Jahana Begum hopes to go in a faintly lit room in a small hut about 10 minutes on foot from Allam’s shelter, and hopes for aid organizations to support camps, especially persons with disabilities.

Her daughter, Sumaya, is more 23, and her children, Harris, 19, and Iyas, 21, are blind and have a cognitive disability that prevents them from talking clearly. They are largely unaware of their surroundings.

“Seeing them began to fade slowly because they became teenagers,” said Beigoum.

“It was very difficult to see, and the healthcare facilities in Myanmar were unable to help,” said the 50 -year -old mother wearing her daughter’s leg.

The little girl laughed, unaware of what was going on around her.

The Begum family arrived at the Cox Bazaar about nine months ago after the army burned in Myanmar.

“We got to the camps with the help of relatives. But life was very difficult for me,” Begoum said, and she tells her how she raised her children alone since the death of her husband eight years ago.

Doctors from the Doctors Without Borders gave its doctors its glasses and began to perform surveying to understand the root cause of their disability.

“At the present time, they express everything by making sounds. But the only word they speak, which is” my mother “, which means the mother, shows me that at least they get to know me.”

“Amma” gives me hope and strength to continue trying to treat them. I want a better future for my children.

“Pain is not only physical – it’s emotional”

They wear a blue, pink and brown shirt in blue, brown – woven fabric around the waist and worn by men and women in Myanmar – Anwar Shah told fleeing from Myanmar to save his life, over losing ends into a mine explosion.

Shah said that he was gathering firewood in his hometown of Abada Brian Che in Myanmar when his leg was bombed by the land brick last year.

Myanmar is among the most bloody countries in the world for the loss of land and insecurity, according to the nation’s report in 2024, where more than 1,000 victims recorded in 2023 alone – a number that exceeded all other countries.

“These were the longest days of my life,” said 25 -year -old Shah, who now needs crutches to wrap.

“The loss of my legs broke everything. I have moved from being a person who presented and protected it, to someone who relies on others just to reach today. I cannot move freely, I cannot work, and I cannot even perform simple tasks alone.”

“I feel I have become a burden on the people I love. The pain is not only my physical – it’s emotional, it’s deep. I still ask myself,” Why did this happen to me? “

More than 30 refugees in the camps in Bangladesh have been parties to the explosions of landmines, leaving them handicapped and dependent on others.

John Quwainley, director of the Law Organization in Myanmar, said that all parties in the armed conflict in Myanmar have used landmines in some capabilities.

He told Al -Jazeera Island: “We know that Myanmar Junta has used ground mines for many years to support its bases. They also put them in civilian areas around the villages and towns that they occupied and fled.”

Abdel -Hashem, 25, who lives in the 21st camp in Cox Bazar, described how to take a brick in February 2024 “changed his life significantly.”

He said: “I have become dependent on others even for the simplest daily tasks. Once I feel the active shareholder in my family, I now feel like a bottle.”

Since his arrival in the camp, Hashem has been in a rehabilitation program in the Turkish Field Hospital where he receives medicines and physical rehabilitation that includes balance exercises, caring of the trunk, and hygiene education.

It was also evaluated by an artificial party currently costing about 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka ($ 412). The cost of these parties bears the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia.

Hashem said: “Despite the shock and hardship, I hold some hope. I dream of getting an artificial leg soon, allowing me to restore some independence and find work to support my family,” Hashem said.

So far, a total of 14 artificial parties has been distributed and installed by the camp residents by the humanitarian aid group, who have experience in producing the parties in the bone orthodontic workshops outside the refugee camps.

Hashem and Shah are part of the organization’s rehabilitation program, which provides training in the gait to help them adapt to the future and regular use of the artificial limbs.

Difficult decisions for relief workers

Seeking to ensure that refugees in the camps are well supported and can live a better life after those fleeing persecution, relief workers currently have to make difficult decisions due to external aid discounts.

“We have to decide between feeding people and providing education and health care due to discounts,” said the healthcare worker in Bangladesh, who asked not to be identified.

Queeni of the Fortify rights indicated that although there are gaps in huge financing due to aid discounts, the response of refugees in the Rohingya should not fall on any one government and it should be a collective regional responsibility.

“There must be a regional response, especially for countries in Southeast Asia, to provide funding,” he said.

He said: “The countries related to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) in the Middle East can provide more feasible support.”

He also recommended working with local humanitarian partners, “whether the citizens of Bangladeshites or whether the Rohingya refugee groups themselves” are because they know how to help their best societies.

“Their ability to reach people who need support at the forefront, and they must be supported by governments all over the world,” he said.

For million refugees in COX, urgent support is needed at this time, when the money grows rare.

According to a joint response plan developed in Rohingya, in 2024, only 30 percent of funding was received out of a total of $ 852.4 million that refugees needed.

As of May 2025, compared to a total call of $ 934.5 million for refugees, only 15 percent received funding.

Plandin Bonol, deputy director of the invitation in the Humanitarian and Inclusion Group, said that cutting aid budgets for camps is a “short -sighted policy.”

“It will have a devastating effect on people,” said Punol.