Dhaka has sent a clear message to UN agencies that if they don’t support Bhanshan Char relocation, the government will not help them in collecting fund under the next Joint Response Plan (JPR).
The message was given to them by Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque when they attended National Taskforce (NTF) meeting on Rohingya at the ministry Wednesday.
The foreign secretary also asked the UN bodies to provide the government a clear picture about their activities in Rakhine.
Representatives from different government entities including home, health and disaster management ministries, intelligence agencies, AFD, NGO Affairs Bureau, Border Guard Bangladesh, Police and Coast Guard attended the meeting.
International Organization for Migration, UNHCR, World Food Program, UNFPA and UNICEF representatives attended the meeting.
“In the first two JRP, Bangladesh helped the UN agencies to collect funds, but the foreign secretary clearly told them they must include Bhasanchar for the next year’s plan, otherwise the government will not support them,” said an official who attended the meeting.
The government spent about Tk 25 billion to build camps in Bhashan Char to relocate 27,000 Rohingya families but due to strong resistance from the UN agencies, it could not be materialized.
In the first JRP pledge meeting held in Switzerland in 2018, Bangladesh Ambassador to Geneva Shameem Ahsan and in the second meeting State Minister Md Shahriar Alam sought global support for the UN agencies.
The foreign secretary was also very critical about the transparency of the UN agencies in spending the resources for the Rohingyas, said another official.
“We demanded a clear record from them about how much money they spend on Rohingyas and how much money on administrative costs,” he said.
Usually UN bodies spend only 35 percent on the final recipient and 65 percent is spent as administrative expenditure.
“The government also asked them to include a security component in the next JRP as the government spends a huge amount money to ensure security in the district,” the official said.
The government has deployed additional police, BGB, Coast Guard and Ansar forces while the intelligence agencies have also increased their presence in Cox’s Bazar district, he added.
The government has also instructed the UN agencies and other NGOs operating there to stop disbursing cash money as it has negative consequences, the official said.
About family planning, the government asked the global agencies to encourage Rohingyas to use contraceptive as their population is increasing at an alarming rate, another official said.
“Every day about 70 to 90 Rohingya babies are born, which is very alarming and we asked them to incorporate the issue in the JRP,” he added.
In the JRP, repatriation issue does not get much prominence, but the government wants it to get a priority in the next plan, he added.