Hopes dim for easing of humanitarian aid restrictions in Arakan State

By Admin 26 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
26 August 2023, Sittwe

With a meeting between Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and the head of the UN humanitarian agency last week, it was hoped that international and local organisations in Arakan State would see existing restrictions on their operations relaxed, but so far they say nothing has changed.

According to international organisations, travel restrictions are the most difficult to deal with when it comes to humanitarian issues in Arakan State.

“We cannot predict the [effects of the] junta’s travel ban on local and international organisations providing humanitarian assistance to those in need in Arakan State,”  said an official from an international organisation providing humanitarian aid to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State. “Aid workers are forced to wait for approval at security checkpoints for a long time. When there are such things, we have to work desperately, with time delays.”

The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Martin Griffiths, visited Arakan State on August 16, one day after he met junta boss Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw to discuss the provision of humanitarian assistance in Myanmar. The UN humanitarian chief also met officials from the Arakan State military council, residents and Muslim IDPs.

“The junta should have allowed aid organisations to travel freely if they really wanted to help the suffering people and ease their hardships,” said the head of an international nongovernmental organisation in Arakan State.

Organisations providing humanitarian aid within Arakan State are only allowed to travel for previously approved activities, and any proposed new procedures have been suspended pending as-yet-ungranted authorisation from the junta.

“The junta’s restricting of humanitarian aid is a violation of the law, and it is doing something that a government should not do,” said politician U Aung Thaung Shwe.