Drastic reductions in international humanitarian funding, spearheaded by the United States, have precipitated a severe crisis for children living in Bangladesh's sprawling Rohingya refugee camps. A major investigation by The Associated Press has uncovered a sharp increase in child exploitation, including forced marriages and labour, directly linked to the closure of essential services.
Catastrophic Funding Shortfalls
In January 2025, US President Donald Trump branded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as wasteful and moved to dismantle it. This decision slashed the American contribution to the Rohingya emergency response by nearly half for the year. The United States had historically been the largest single donor for the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, over half of whom are children, stranded in camps in Bangladesh.
The consequences were immediate and devastating. The overall UN-coordinated response plan for the Rohingya is only 50% funded for 2025, with aid agencies warning next year will be worse. UNICEF, the UN children's agency, lost 27% of its funding, forcing it to shutter 2,800 schools in the camps in June. Child protection programmes, alongside healthcare and sanitation services, were crippled by the combined US and international funding reductions.
This contradicts a statement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Congress that "No one has died" due to USAID's dissolution. The AP's reporting found evidence of children starving to death in Myanmar as a result of the aid cuts.
Children Bear the Brutal Consequences
With schools and safe spaces closed, children have been left dangerously vulnerable. The AP's investigation, based on interviews with 37 children, family members, and aid workers, documents a alarming surge in violations.
Verified cases of child marriage rose by 21% in the year to September, compared to the same period last year. Child labour cases increased by 17%. Patrick Halton, a UNICEF child protection manager, stated these figures are a significant undercount. "With the funding cuts, we had to downscale a lot in terms of education," Halton said. "Children have not necessarily had things to do, and we've therefore seen this rise."
More terrifyingly, reported abductions and kidnappings between January and mid-November more than quadrupled to 560 children. Recruitment and use of children by armed groups in the camps saw an eightfold increase, affecting 817 children. With no structured activities, children wandering the camps have become easy targets for traffickers and militants.
Voices from the Camps
The human cost is embodied by teenagers like Hasina (a pseudonym). Married off at 16 after her school closed, she now endures beatings and sexual abuse from her husband. Confined to her shelter, her dreams of becoming an English teacher have been shattered. "I dreamed of being something, of working for the community," she told the AP softly. "My life is destroyed."
In response to the AP's findings, the US State Department said America had provided over $168 million to the Rohingya since Trump's term began. It claimed to have "advanced burden sharing," resulting in 11 countries increasing their funding by more than 10% year-on-year. However, the department did not provide evidence that US policy directly influenced these decisions, and UN data shows the US contribution for 2025 stands at $156 million.
The situation leaves a generation of Rohingya children, already survivors of a genocide in Myanmar, facing a new wave of trauma and lost futures, squarely linked to the withdrawal of vital international support.
