S Korea reaffirms continued support for Rohingya crisis

The Ambassador of South Korea (Republic of Korea) in Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun, on Sunday (19 February), visited the Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camp with coordination of the UNHCR Dhaka Office. 

The purpose of this visit was to assess the situation of the refugees in the camp, to observe the progress of the Korea-funded projects and to discuss the prospects of this prolonged crisis by engaging with the refugees, reads a press release.

After looking around various facilities in the camp including the registration centre, LPG distribution centre, faecal sludge treatment plant, eco-shed in Camp 4 and jute bag production centre in Camp 5, Ambassador Lee had occasions to have a dialogue with male and female refugees, in particular on the difficulties and challenges of the refugees.

Sympathizing with the diminishing hope and frustration of the Rohingyas as the repatriation to their homeland is prolonged and as the prospect is dim, Ambassador Lee stressed that there is no other way but to repatriate the refugees to Myanmar for the ultimate resolution of the crisis. 

Reaffirming Korea's continued support for the protection of refugees forcibly relocated to Cox's Bazar, Ambassador Lee expressed Korea's interest in strengthening the host community, supporting the vulnerable population in particular women and children and refugees with disability.

Since the inception of the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2017, the Korean government has been supporting the operations of the UN agencies and other international organizations in Bangladesh for their humanitarian works in the refugee camp and host community including in Bashan Char. 

The total amount of Korea's funding so far is over $23 million. UNHCR is the biggest recipient of Korea's funding followed by Unicef, IOM, WFP, IFRC and UNFPA. In addition to the government funding, JTS Korea, a Korean Buddhist NGO, provided a total of 200,000 gas stoves to the refugee camp in 2019 and 2022 respectively.

Accompanied this visit were Rhee Su-jin, deputy representative of the UNHCR Dhaka Office, Kim Tae-young, director of KOICA Dhaka Office and other officers of the Korean Embassy, KOICA Dhaka Office and UNHCR Dhaka Office. 

It was Ambassador Lee's second visit to the Cox's Bazar refugee camp. Ambassador Lee visited the Camp for the first time in February 2021. Ambassador Lee also visited Bashan Char together with a group of Dhaka-based Ambassadors on 3 March 2022.