Rubio allows humanitarian aid as Dhaka claims Rohingya funding will continue

Interim government officials say their U.S. counterparts delivered positive news despite President Donald Trump’s 90-day freeze order on foreign aid.
Mostafa Yousuf
2025.01.28
Dhaka
Rubio allows humanitarian aid as Dhaka claims Rohingya funding will continue Rohingya crowd outside a food distribution center at the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Jan. 18, 2018.
Manish Swarup/AP

UPDATED at 4:30 p.m. ET on 2025-01-30

Bangladesh’s interim government has claimed the United States will not pause funding for Rohingya in the South Asian nation despite President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid

Earlier this week, Bangladesh interim leader, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, thanked the Trump administration for maintaining aid for about 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who live in camps and settlements in the country’s southeast, local media reported.

“The U.S. had confirmed they would continue food and nutritional support for the Rohingya community,” Shah Alam Khokan, personal secretary to the High Representative for Rohingya Affairs of the transitional government, told BenarNews.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka had little to say about discussions with Bangladesh leaders regarding the Rohingya. 

It referred BenarNews to “exemptions” to the presidential executive order, which freezes U.S. foreign aid programs for 90 days but contains a clause stipulating that the secretary of state may waive the pause in aid “for specific programs.”

Late Tuesday, a memo signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an emergency humanitarian waiver to the foreign assistance pause.

“For purposes of this waiver, life-saving humanitarian assistance applies to core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance,” the memo said.

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Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government speaks to reporters at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13, 2024. [Sergei Grits/AP]

On Sunday, officials in Washington announced that Rubio was following through on Trump’s executive order by pausing “all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for review” in order “to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.”  

“President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.”


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Elsewhere, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was unable to confirm the interim government’s statement about U.S. funding continuing. 

 “We are aware of the decision by the new U.S. administration to pause allocation of funds to foreign assistance programs. We understand that some exceptions will be made, but have no specific information and are therefore not in a position to make any further comments at this stage,” The U.N. refugee agency said in a statement.

“UNHCR has worked closely with the United States for decades. We are looking forward to engaging actively and constructively with the U.S. government as a trusted partner.”

The United Nations oversees aid to the refugee camps through its Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis – the U.S. has been its top donor. 

In 2024, the U.S. contributed $229.5 million in aid for the Rohingya community in Bangladesh, bringing the total amount of aid provided since 2017 to $2.1 billion, according to the website of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

This report has been updated to include the memo from Marco Rubio.

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