UN: Myanmar Junta Blocking Aid for Rohingya Refugees After Cyclone

By Staff, Agencies

The United Nations on Tuesday slammed the Myanmar junta’s “unfathomable” suspension of travel authorizations for aid workers trying to reach over a million people in the cyclone-ravaged Rakhine state.

Cyclone Mocha brought lashing rain and winds of 120 miles per hour to Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh last month, leaving nearly 150 people dead in Myanmar, according to AFP. It destroyed homes and brought a storm surge to Rakhine state, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya minority refugees live in displacement camps following decades of ethnic conflict.

Yet, the UN said last week that junta authorities suspended “existing travel authorizations… for humanitarian organizations.”

Rakhine state is home to around 600,000 Rohingya, who are regarded by many there as interlopers from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and freedom of movement.

"Four weeks into this disaster response and with the monsoon season well underway, it is unfathomable that humanitarians are being denied access to support people in need," said Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar.

Since the cyclone hit on May 14, humanitarian workers have been getting aid to a growing number of people using limited travel authorizations granted to organizations with long-standing operations in Rakhine.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said more than 110,000 people had received shelter and relief items during that time, while food assistance had reached almost 300,000 people in Rakhine thanks to those approvals.

But he slammed the "effective ban" on access by humanitarian workers, "paralyzing the distribution of life-saving food, drinking water, shelter supplies, and other relief to affected communities."

Last month, the UN launched an appeal for $333 million in emergency funding for the 1.6 million people in Myanmar it said were affected by the storm.