Deep cuts to foreign aid by United States President Donald Trump this year, coupled with reductions from other donor countries, have forced the closure of thousands of schools and youth centres in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, devastating critical child protection programmes.
The consequences are dire: Girls forced into marriage, children as young as 10 pushed into hard labour, and some girls as young as 12 coerced into prostitution.
While the US State Department reports providing more than $168m in aid to the Rohingya since Trump took office, citing improved efficiency and shared donor responsibility, the reality on the ground remains catastrophic.
In rare moments of solitude, between beatings from her husband, 17-year-old Hasina weeps for the school that once offered her sanctuary in an otherwise merciless world.
Since Myanmar’s military killed her father in 2017, forcing her to flee to Bangladesh with her mother and sisters, school had been her refuge from camp predators and the threat of forced marriage. Then in June, when Hasina was 16, her teacher announced the school’s funding had been cut. The school was closing. In an instant, both her education and childhood vanished.
With educational opportunities eliminated and her family fearing worsening conditions from aid reductions, Hasina – like hundreds of other underage girls – was quickly married off. Many, including Hasina, now endure abuse from their husbands.
“I dreamed of being something, of working for the community,” Hasina says softly. The The Associated Press news agency is withholding her full name to protect her from retaliation by her husband. “My life is destroyed.”
In a sweltering building near her cramped shelter, Hasina nervously fidgets with her pink phone case marked “Forever Young”. Though still young, the aid cuts forced her prematurely into adulthood – and horror. Soon after marriage, her husband isolated her from her family and began physically and sexually abusing her. She constantly dreams of school, where she excelled in English and aspired to become a teacher. Now she’s largely confined to her shelter, performing domestic duties while dreading the next assault.
She would escape, if possible, but has nowhere to go. Return to Myanmar is impossible, with the military responsible for the 2017 genocide still controlling her homeland. Her husband now controls her future, though she no longer envisions one.
“If the school hadn’t closed,” she says, “I wouldn’t be trapped in this life.”
The situation has become increasingly dangerous for the 600,000 children in these overcrowded camps. UNICEF reports that child violations have surged this year, with abduction and kidnapping cases more than quadrupling to 560 compared with last year. Reports of armed groups recruiting children have increased eightfold, affecting 817 children.
In the Bangladesh camps, the US has reduced funding by nearly half compared with last year, while the overall Rohingya emergency response is only 50 percent funded for 2025. Although UNICEF has repurposed some remaining funds to reopen most of its learning centres, many schools run by other aid organisations remain closed, leaving thousands of children without education.
