To date, this Emergency Appeal which seeks a total budget of CHF 133 million, is 59 per cent funded (funding coverage as of April 2024 is CHF 78.9 million). Further funding contributions are needed from all sources including IFRC and its memberships to enable the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), to continue to help meet the humanitarian needs of displaced people from Rakhine, as well as the local community affected by the influx of displaced people.
Description of the crisis
In 2016, the latest large-scale movement of people from Rakhine state in Myanmar into Bangladesh occurred triggered by an increase in conflict in Rakhine. In August 2017, an unprecedented number of people [655,500] crossed the border within a month. Since 2016, Bangladesh has been hosting 979,306 displaced people from Myanmar which is now described as a complex and protracted population movement crisis. From late 2020 until now, 35,152 have been relocated from the Cox’s Bazar camps to Bhasan Char Island. All displaced people from Rakhine are almost exclusively reliant on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs with the absence of any durable solutions to their displacement and amidst a backdrop of uncertainty on their future, including the possibility of repatriation, frequent disasters such as cyclones, seasonal rainfall, flash flood, and fire incidents and increased security concerns in the camps.
The camp community, comprising 51 per cent women and 49 per cent men include a high per cent of children.
According to the population factsheet, 52 per cent of the population are children, four per cent are elderly and 5.53 per cent have been identified as vulnerable individuals with at least one special need1. Their essential basic needs include food, access to health services and safe water, shelter, information, restoring family links, protection services, and preparedness for seasonal cyclones, monsoon rains, multi-hazards and disease outbreaks (COVID-19 pandemic, seasonal cholera and dengue etc.) as well as protection against the impacts of environmental and ecosystem degradation.
The complex and protracted crisis is also manifested in the continuing challenges faced by the local community in terms of livelihoods and the local economy, among other factors, brought about by the presence of the huge number of displaced people from Rakhine (hereafter referred to as ‘displaced people’ or ‘camp community’).
The Government of Bangladesh called on the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) to respond to the emergency in December 2016, in line with the National Society’s mandate to provide humanitarian services as auxiliary to the public authorities. Accordingly, an international operation was launched with IFRC-DREF support, followed by an Emergency Appeal launched in March 2017. The appeal has been revised on seven occasions, with the last revision covering the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024. The seventh revision marks a new phase of IFRC support to BDRCS in its continued response to the protracted crisis and is aligned with the request of the GoB to BDRCS to continue providing humanitarian services based on the Fundamental Principles of the RCRC Movement, and the mandate of the BDRCS as an auxiliary to the public authorities in the humanitarian field.