New funding for Rohingya

Save the Children Australia Acting CEO, Mat Tinkler, welcomed the announcement and urged the Federal Government to continue to work diplomatically to help end the violence which broke out in August this year in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

"This funding by the Australian Government is critical in helping address the basic and urgent humanitarian needs of displaced Rohingya – many of whom have witnessed untold suffering, and had their lives ripped up from beneath their feet," Mr Tinkler said.

Since August 25 2017, more than 400,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. Among the new arrivals are about a quarter of a million children, more than 1,100 of whom are separated or unaccompanied.

Save the Children has been supporting the long-term needs of displaced Rohingya families in and around Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh since 2012, and is scaling up its relief work to meet the needs of new arrivals.

"The humanitarian response needs to be scaled up rapidly," Mr Tinkler said.

"Rohingya that arrive at Cox's Bazar are hungry, exhausted and often arrive without food or water, having left their homes in fear of their lives and walked for several days.

"Save the Children is particularly worried that the demand for food, shelter, water and basic hygiene."

Save the Children has started distributing relief goods and set up Child Friendly Spaces, where children can play, recover and be children again. However, the humanitarian response needs to be rapidly scaled up, and significantly more funding from the international community is needed.

For interviews with Mat Tinkler, call Alex Sampson on 0429 943 027.