The Philippine government has pledged $100,000 or around P4.85 million to assist, through the United Nations, the Rohingya refugees in Myanmar, where over a million people in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have been suffering since 2017.
“The Philippines is announcing a modest financial contribution of $100,000 for the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) to be earmarked for the response to refugees from Rakhine State but our offer really is—Come, those rejected by the rest of the world,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a video message for the virtual Donor Conference on Sustaining Support for the Rohingya Refugee Response on October 22.
The assistance is aligned with President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement during the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly, where he announced his “open-door” policy for refugees, including the Rohingya people fleeing for safety.
Locsin, meanwhile, said Manila would support the Myanmar government’s efforts to ensure the safe and voluntary return of displaced people and the sustainable development of all communities in Rakhine State.
“Together with the rest of ASEAN, we will continue to support the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations,” he said.
According to the UNHCR, the Rohingya situation remains an “acute humanitarian and human rights crisis” more than three years after the August 2017 violence, which caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to flee their homes in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh.
To date, there are about 860,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar district, while an estimated 600,000 Rohingya people in Rakhine State are facing violence and discrimination, said the UN agency.
Malaysia, India, Indonesia and other countries in the region are also hosting nearly 150,000 Rohingya refugees.
Amid the mounting refugee crisis across the world, Locsin called on the international community to respond with “an unbridled concern for the well-being of others as for our own.
“The never-ending recurring scenario of being driven away from one’s home because of strife, violence and persecution is one of our species’ unnecessary heartbreaking inventions. The only way to even this out is to respond with ‘malasakit,’” Locsin said.
