Following World Refugee Day on 20 June, and with the monsoon season just beginning, the UK is calling on the international community to step up support for the refugees and their host communities. The UK is leading the way with £129 million of aid already given.
With the gender aspects of the humanitarian crisis often overlooked, Joanna Roper will visit a women’s safe spaces in the refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar and meet refugees, humanitarian workers, and civil society leaders to understand the needs of women and girls caught up in the crisis.
Minister Field and Joanna Roper will also meet senior ministers to discuss the crisis as well as girls’ and women’s education in Bangladesh more widely.
Ahead of the visit, Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, the Rt Hon Mark Field MP, said:
Bangladesh is dealing with a major humanitarian crisis not of its making and it is vital the international community works with Bangladesh to step up support for the refugees and their host communities, especially during this monsoon season.
We are incredibly grateful to Bangladesh and to Prime Minister Hasina for welcoming over one million Rohingya refugees and I am looking forward to seeing how UK aid is helping improve their lives.
UK Special Envoy for Gender Equality, Joanna Roper, said:
The UK is determined to be a world leader in advocating for gender equality internationally and it is all too often women and girls who are the greatest victims in a humanitarian crisis like this – whether as a result of sexual violence, or loss of access to education, and they must not be ignored.
Further Information
Follow this news feed: HM Government