Foreign help cuts harm the most vulnerable in the largest refugee camp in the world | Rohingya

Cox’s bazaar, Bangladesh – The sound of children at stake resonates through the green ways of one of the dozens of refugee camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, a densely populated coastal city in the south-east of Bangladesh.

Just a moment, sounds manage to soften the difficult living conditions to which more than a million people live here The largest refugee camp in the world.

Described as the most persecuted people on the planet, the Rohingyas Muslim refugees in Bangladesh Can now be one of the most forgotten populations in the world, eight years after being ethnically cleaned their homes in neighboring Myanmar by a Buddhist predominance military regime.

“The Bazaar de Cox is zero soil for the impact of budget cuts on people in desperate need,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during a visit to the sprawling camps in May.

The visit of the UN chief followed the elimination of American president Donald Trump to the American Agency for International Development (USAID)Who has blocked several key projects in the camps, and the United Kingdom announcing discounts of foreign aid in order to increase defense expenses.

Health care in camps have suffered Severe breath abroad Help the bite.

‘They call me “Langhra” (lame)’

Sitting outside his fortune bamboo hut, Jahid Alam said to Al Jazeera how, before being forced to become a refugee, he had worked as a farmer and also caught to live in the Napura region of his native myanmar. It was at the time, in 2016, that he first noticed that his leg swelled for no apparent reason.

“I was doing agriculture and suddenly felt this intense desire to itch from my left leg,” said Alam. “My leg has soon turned red and started to swell. I rushed to my house and tried to put ice on it. But that didn’t help. “

A local doctor prescribed an ointment, but the itching continued, just like swelling.

He quickly had trouble standing or walking and could no longer work, becoming dependent on family members.

A year later, when the Myanmar army began to burn Rohingyas houses in his village and torture the women, he decided to send his family to Bangladesh.

Alam stayed behind to take care of the cows on his earth. But the army quickly threatened him to leave too and join his family in the neighboring Bangladesh.

The 53 -year -old man was treated by doctors without borders, known by his French initials MSF, in the Kutupalong region of Cox’s Bazar since his arrival, but the amputation of his leg seems likely. While some doctors said he had the elephantiasis – an infection that causes the members’ widening and swelling – a final diagnosis has not yet been made.

In addition to the disease, Alam must also face stigma due to its handicap.

“They call me” Langhra “(lame) when they see that I cannot walk properly,” he said.

But, he adds: “If God gave me this disease and this handicap, 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.”

‘The word “amma” gives me hope’

Sitting in a room weakly lit in a small cabin about 10 minutes walk from the Alam refuge, Jahena Begum’s help organizations will continue to support the camps and in particular disabled people.

His daughter Sumaiya Akter, 23, and his sons, Harez, 19, and Ayas, 21, are blind and have a cognitive handicap that prevents them from talking clearly. They largely ignore their environment.

“Their vision slowly started to vanish by becoming adolescents,” explains Begum.

“It was very difficult to monitor, and health establishments in Myanmar could not help,” said the 50 -year -old mother by tapping her daughter’s leg.

The girl gleaned, ignoring what was going on around her.

Begum’s family arrived in the cox bazaar about nine months ago after the Myanmar soldiers burned their house.

“We arrived at the camps with the help of parents. But life was very difficult for me,” said Begum, telling how she had mentioned her children alone since the death of her husband eight years ago.

MSF doctors gave his children glasses and started running analyzes to understand the deep cause of their handicap.

“Right now, they express while making sounds. But the only word they speak, which is” amma “, which means mother, shows me that they recognize me at least,” said Begum.

“The word” 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 is emotional ”

Dressed in a collar shirt with blue and pink stripes and a striped longyi brown – the fabric woven around the waist and worn by men and women in Myanmar – Anowar Shah spoke of fleeing myanmar to save his life, in addition to losing a limb to a mine.

Shah said he was collecting firewood in his hometown of Labada, the price, Chey in Myanmar, when his leg was destroyed by the mine mine last year.

Myanmar is among the deadliest countries in the world for the land mine and victims of unplodced ammunition, according to a 2024 United Nations report, with more than 1,000 victims recorded in only 2023 – a number that exceeded all other nations.

“These are the longest and most painful days of my life,” said Shah, 25, who now needs crutches to move.

“Losing my broken leg. I went from someone who supplied and protected, to someone who depends on the others just to spend the day. I can’t move freely, I can’t work, I can’t even perform single tasks,” he said.

“I feel like I have become a burden for the people I love. The pain is not only physical – it’s emotional, it’s deep. I continue to wonder:” Why did it do me? “”

More than 30 refugees in the Bangladesh camps have lost members in explosions of terrestrial mine, leaving them with disabilities and dependent on the others.

All parties to the armed conflict in Myanmar used terrestrial mines to a certain extent, said John Quinley, director of the organization of Fortify Rights, in Myanmar.

“We know that the Junta of Myanmar has used land mines over several years to strengthen their bases. They also lay them in civil zones around the villages and cities they occupied and fled,” he told Al Jazeera.

Abdul Hashim, 25, who lives in Camp 21 in Cox’s Bazar, described how to walk on a terrestrial mine in February 2024 “radically modified his life”.

“I have become dependent on others for the simplest daily tasks. Once an active contributor to my family, I now feel like a burden,” he said.

Since his arrival in the camp, Hashim has participated in a rehabilitation program at the Turkish Field hospital where he receives drugs and physical rehabilitation which involves equilibrium exercises, native care and hygiene education.

It has also been assessed for a prosthetic member which currently costs around 50,000 Bangladesh Taka ($ 412). The cost of these members is borne by the Australian Foreign Ministry of Foreign and Trade.

“Despite the trauma and the difficulties, I keep a certain hope. I dream of soon receiving a prosthetic leg, which would allow me to find a certain independence and find work to support my family,” said Hashim.

Until now, a total of 14 prosthetic members have been distributed and adjusted to the inhabitants of the camp by the Humanity & Inclusion aid group, who have an expertise in the production of members in orthotic workshops outside the refugee camps.

Hashim and Shah are both part of the organization’s rehabilitation program, which has provided training on the process to help them adapt to the future and regularly use prosthetic members.

Difficult decisions for humanitarian workers

Seeking to ensure that refugees in the camps are well supported and can live a better life after having fled the persecution, humanitarian workers must currently make difficult decisions due to reductions in foreign aid.

“We must decide between nourishing people and providing studies and health care due to assistance cuts,” a Bangladais health worker asked Al Jazeera who asked for anonymity, for fear that his comment can endanger future help from the United States.

Quintley de Fortify Rights stressed that although there are huge financing gaps due to aid discounts, the response of Rohingyas refugees should not fall to a government and should be a collective regional responsibility.

“There must be a regional response, especially for the countries of Southeast Asia, to give funding,” he said.

“Countries linked to the OIC (organization of Islamic cooperation) in the Middle East could also provide much more significant support,” he said.

He also recommended working with local humanitarian partners, “whether Bangladais nationals or they are themselves Rohingyas refugee groups” because they know how to help their best communities.

“Their ability to access people who need support are at the forefront, and they should be supported by governments around the world,” he said.

For the million refugees estimated at Cox’s Bazar, urgent support is necessary at the moment, when the funds never increase.

According to a joint response plan drawn up for the Rohingyas, in 2024, only 30% of funding was received from a total of $ 852.4 million necessary for refugees.

In May 2025, against an overall call of $ 934.5 million for refugees, only 15% received funding.

The reduction of aid budgets for the camps is a “short -sighted policy,” said Blandine Bouniol, deputy director of the defense of humanity and humanitarian inclusion.

He said Bouniol, “has a devastating impact on people”.