Denmark commits Tk 400m more to support Rohingyas

Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tørnæs on Monday announced that Denmark would provide an additional 32 million DKK (Taka 400 million) to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and host communities in Bangladesh.

She made this announcement at a donor conference that began in Geneva on Monday aiming to support UN’s appeal for Rohingyas hosted by the European Union.

The Danish ambassador in Dhaka Mikael Hemniti Winther said, “The influx of Rohingya refugees came at a critical time when the resilience of the host communities was already being tested by cyclones, floods and rising food prices.”

Denmark is therefore scaling up its present activities in Cox’s Bazar in partnership with central and local government agencies and providing training to an additional 10,000 poor and vulnerable farmers.

The additional support, as announced by the Danish minister, will be used to further UNHCR’s relief efforts addressing the newly-arrived Rohingyas and local communities in Bangladesh.

Denmark will also support the establishment of a One-Stop-Crisis Centre for Rohingya women who have been victims of violence and are facing post-traumatic stress. This will be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs under the flagship development cooperation between Bangladesh and Denmark, a Denmark embassy press release said.

Since the recent influx of refugees began in August, Denmark made significant contributions to World Food Programme, Action Against Hunger and the International Organisation for Migration to help address the humanitarian needs of the Rohingyas and Bangladesh’s local communities.