DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday on a four-day visit to review the situation of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees amid the fear of aid cuts that could seriously affect them.
Bangladesh’s foreign affairs adviser, Touhid Hossain, received Guterres at Dhaka’s main airport.
Guterres’s visit, which is his second to the country, is seen as crucial after the announcement of possible aid cuts by the World Food Program, or WFP, and others following the decision by Washington to shut down USAID operations.
The interim government, which came to power in August after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a mass uprising in Bangladesh, is hopeful that the visit will strengthen international efforts to mobilize aid for the Rohingya refugees and attract new global attention to the Rohingya crisis.
The WFP, the main U.N. food agency, said in a letter to the refugee authorities earlier this month that cuts to food rations could take effect from April 1 in Cox’s Bazar, where dozens of camps are inhabited by Rohingya refugees.
The agency said that the food rations could be half, or $6, from the existing $12.50 per month.
In a message to The Associated Press, the WFP said recently that whether the fund cuts would be effective from next month would depend on getting adequate funding that it requires to run their operations.
WFP spokesperson Kun Li said that they were “actively mobilizing funds” to prevent any reductions in food assistance for Rohingya refugees. If the agency is unable to secure sufficient funding — $81 million to sustain operations through the end of the year, including $15 million needed for April — they will have no choice but to reduce rations starting in April.
Guterres and Bangladesh’s chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus, are scheduled to visit Rohingya camps in the southern Cox’s Bazar district on Friday.
On Saturday, Guterres will hold a meeting with Yunus at his office in Dhaka, the capital. A joint media briefing is scheduled to be held later Saturday.
An interim government in Bangladesh had said earlier that the end of USAID payments would stop other projects in Bangladesh, but funding for Rohingya refugees would continue to flow.
The U.S. has been the top donor to Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees, providing the United Nations with emergency food and nutrition assistance. The U.S. usually provides almost half of the aid money spent on the humanitarian response to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which provided about $300 million in 2024.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have lived in Bangladesh for decades and about 70,000 crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024. During fighting with the military junta, the opposition force known as the Arakan Army effectively took over the Rakhine state where Rohingya were displaced and took shelter in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh says repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar, which has been accused in an international court of genocide against Rohingya, is the ultimate solution of the crisis, but complexities over verification and other diplomatic and political issues have made the future of the refugees bleak.
