WFP will have no fund for feeding Bhutanese refugees from next year

The UN World Food Program (WFP) has said that WFP will have no fund to feed Bhutanese refugees sheltering in seven different camps in eastern Nepal from next year.

In the threshold of new year, WFP stated that it won't be able to feed those refugees from the 1st January 2007 as there will not be the funds with it.

"WFP will no longer be able to provide full food rations to more than 106,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in eastern Nepal from January 2007, unless there is an immediate infusion of fund from the international donor community," WFP's Kathmandu office said in a statement released on Friday.

The statement further reads-"The donor community has always come through and provided critical assistance to the Bhutanese refugees since 1992 but no funds at all have been forthcoming for the next two-year program, which starts on 1 January 2007."

Humanitarian assistance, like the food aid provided by WFP, is critical to fulfilling their basic needs- the WFP said.

According to Richard Ragan, WFP's Country Representative in Nepal there has been no commitment made so far to support feeding of the refugees for the coming years and the lack of financial support has put the health and safety of the refugees at serious risk.

The lack of donor funds for this two-year, US$23.6 million dollar program means the WFP would not only have to cut food rations to the refugees, but at this critical time in Nepal's history, the threat of over 100,000 refugees losing access to food could have serious implications on the overall security situation in the country, Ragan said.

According to WFP's Nepal office, for the current year that ends on 31 December, support for the program has come from the European Commission (US$2.7 million), the United States (US$1.9 million), Nepal (US$150,000), Japan (US$20,000) and the private sector (US$8,000).

A further US$3.7 million was received in multilateral contributions and WFP spent about 9.3 million dollars in 2006 to feed the refugees, according to WFP.