JUSTICE FOR ALL STATEMENT: URGENT CALL TO ACTION AS ROHINGYA CRISIS DEEPENS: SHRINKING AID, DEADLY SEA CROSSINGS, AND SYSTEMIC FAILURE DEMAND IMMEDIATE GLOBAL RESPONSE

NEW YORK, N.Y. – As new reports reveal that food assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has been cut to as low as $7 per person per month, while a record number of refugees are perishing at sea in search of safety, Justice For All is today issuing an urgent call to action to the international community. The organization is demanding an immediate shift from a failing system of containment to one grounded in human dignity, legal accountability, and shared global responsibility.

The dire warnings come on the heels of multiple reports in April 2026. The World Food Program (WFP) has implemented a new needs-based system, reducing monthly rations and forcing refugee families to sell portions of their aid to pay for healthcare and other basic needs. Simultaneously, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that nearly 900 Rohingya were dead or missing at sea in 2025, the deadliest year on record, and that over 2,800 have already attempted the perilous crossing in the first four months of 2026 alone. One boat capsized this month, leaving 250 people missing and feared dead.

Justice For All’s own field reports from Cox’s Bazar have long documented the catastrophic impact of monsoon rains, overcrowding, and the complete lack of economic opportunity for the 1.2 million refugees confined to the camps. The organization’s Burma Task Force, established in 2012, has submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has repeatedly called for accountability for the genocidal campaign against the Rohingya by Myanmar’s military.

A System in “Strategic Limbo”

An opinion piece published this month by a Rohingya refugee living in the camps, Sabit Hamid, describes the situation as “strategic limbo”, a population unable to return to Myanmar, where a civil war rages and systemic persecution continues; unlikely to be resettled in third countries, which accept only symbolic numbers; and not permitted to integrate locally in Bangladesh, where they are denied formal employment and freedom of movement.

The global response to the Rohingya crisis represents a profound humanitarian failure: well-funded enough to create dependency, but not bold enough to create opportunity. The United Nations and its member states have spent billions of dollars maintaining a system of containment that has now reached its breaking point. The Joint Response Plan remains less than 30 percent funded, and now the international community is cutting food to the most vulnerable people on earth.

Justice For All’s Four-Point Call to Action

Effective immediately, Justice For All calls on the United Nations, member states, and donor governments to implement the following urgent measures:

1. Immediately Reverse Food Ration Cuts and Restore Full Funding to the Joint Response Plan

-The WFP must rescind the needs-based cuts and restore full rations for every refugee.

-Donor nations must fully fund the 2026 Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Joint Response Plan, closing the current 70 percent funding gap.

-Emergency supplementary food aid must be deployed ahead of the upcoming monsoon season to prevent widespread malnutrition.

2. Authorize and Fund Controlled Livelihood Programs in the Camps

-Bangladesh, supported by the UN and donor nations, must permit controlled income-generating activities for Rohingya refugees, including vocational training, cash-for-work programs, and access to informal markets.

-Current restrictions that create 98 percent aid dependency are unsustainable and violate the basic human right to work.

-Livelihood programs should be designed to also benefit host communities in Cox’s Bazar, reducing economic tensions.

3. Launch an Emergency Resettlement Surge and End Regional Pushbacks

-The United States, Canada, European Union member states, and other wealthy nations must immediately commit to resettling at least 100,000 of the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees over the next 24 months. This commitment should begin with urgent, concrete action, particularly our renewed and emphatic call for the United States to lead by swiftly resettling an initial 10,000 refugees as a critical first step.

-All regional governments, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, must immediately cease all pushbacks, detentions, and deportations of Rohingya boat arrivals, in full compliance with the principle of non-refoulement.

-Justice For All reiterates its condemnation of India’s forced expulsion of Rohingya refugees into the Andaman Sea, a flagrant violation of international law.

4. Pursue Full Accountability at the ICC and ICJ; Sanctions on Myanmar’s Military Junta

-The international community must fully support the ICC Prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other military commanders for crimes against humanity and genocide.

-All UN member states should impose and enforce targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s military junta and its commercial fuel and arms suppliers.

-The UN Security Council must convene an emergency session on the Rohingya crisis, breaking its prolonged silence on the matter.

 

The Human Cost of Inaction

-Justice For All’s own staff on the ground in Cox’s Bazar report that Rohingya families are already selling portions of their reduced rations to pay for medical treatment and transportation, a sign not of surplus, but of desperation. A refugee named Mohammed Rafiq, a father of four, told reporters that his family’s ration was cut from $12 to $7 because he has an 18-year-old son. “But does he earn anything?” Rafiq asked. The money now covers only rice and oil, not the meat or fish his children request.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old Rohingya trafficker who identified himself only as “Faisal” admitted to sending 20 people onto the boat that capsized this month, killing 250. “They come to us asking for a way out,” he said. “They know the risks, some make it, some are arrested, some die.”

Bangladesh Government Forms New National Committee

On April 22, 2026, the Bangladeshi government announced the formation of a new 16-member national committee to coordinate Rohingya issues, led by the Home Minister and including the Foreign Minister, cabinet secretary, and top intelligence and military officials. While the committee’s mandate includes managing law and order in the camps and coordinating repatriation efforts, Justice For All notes with concern the absence of any mandate to address the root causes of the crisis, including expanding livelihood opportunities, improving humanitarian access, protecting refugees from trafficking and exploitation, and reviving the struggling education program for 500,000 school-age students.

 

Justice For All recognizes the immense burden Bangladesh has borne in hosting over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees for nearly a decade. However, a committee focused solely on security and repatriation, without corresponding international action on resettlement, accountability, and funding, will not stop the deaths at sea or the starvation in the camps. The organization urges the government of Bangladesh to include refugee protection and humanitarian access as core pillars of the new committee’s mandate and to work with the UN and donor nations to authorize controlled livelihood programs as a matter of urgency.

The international community has failed the Rohingya for nearly a decade. The genocide did not end in 2017. It continues today, through starvation in camps, drownings at sea, and a world that looks away. Justice For All will not look away. The time for statements of concern is over. The time for action is NOW.

 

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About Justice For All

Justice For All is a faith-based human rights organization with over thirty years of experience in preventing and addressing the persecution of religious minorities and genocide. Accredited at the United Nations, Justice For All’s Burma Task Force has led advocacy, legal submissions before the International Criminal Court, congressional testimony, and grassroots mobilization for Rohingya rights since 2012. The organization is committed to pursuing justice through legal accountability, humanitarian advocacy, and the amplification of survivor voices.