UNHCR’s Biometric Ultimatum to the Rohingya
When Aid Becomes Blackmail
Yesterday, The Diplomat ran my follow-up investigation on how 300–400 long-registered Rohingya families lost their rations after refusing UNHCR’s new biometric drive.
Read it here: UNHCR Defends Biometric Enrollment Push for Rohingya Refugees
Below you’ll find the two key documents the article is built on, published in full for the first time:
Annex A – 17 March letter from Yoko Akasaka, Head of Operations, UNHCR Cox’s Bazar.
“No humanitarian assistance may be provided to an individual who is not biometrically registered.”
Annex B – 5 June e-mail from UNHCR Bangladesh’s external-relations unit defending the cut-off.
“After careful review… no specific protection risks could be identified.”
Both texts are striking for what they don’t contain: any reference to a legal or policy clause that actually permits suspending life-saving aid for data non-compliance. UNHCR’s own rule-book says the opposite:
ExCom-91 (2001) – registration is a protection tool; assistance must be needs-based.
Data-Protection Policy (2015) – consent must be freely given, specific and informed.
Linking rations to iris-scans flouts those standards, yet the agency offers no citation - only budget stress and “programme integrity.”
Meanwhile, Privacy International tells me:
“The decision to deploy a tech- and data-intensive system should never lead to exclusion… Saying no must not mean losing life-saving services.”
Families are already documenting clinic turn-aways, child drop-outs and hunger. Their complaint is now before four UN Special Rapporteurs.
I’ve asked UNHCR five concrete questions (re-activation plan, risk assessment, consent forms, data-sharing MoUs, appeals). No answer yet.
Read the primary evidence , share widely, and keep the pressure on.
If you missed the initial article, published last week, that explains the background - then read it here: No Fingerprint, No Food: How the UN Is Failing the Rohingya
Next Up:
Keep an eye out for my breakdown of Dr. Muhammad Yunus’ recent Chatham House remarks re the Rohingya. Spoiler: his “fresh start” language echoes the last government’s security-first playbook! Yunus doubled-down on a hard-security frame: he warned of an impending “explosion” of angry Rohingya youth (yes, direct copy of Lt. Gen. Mahfuzur Rahman sentiments). He painted hostility from Bangladeshi hosts as natural, glossing over the state’s own aid-rationing and work bans that manufacture scarcity. Repatriation stayed his only horizon, even as conditions in Rakhine remain fragile. Even under gentle probing from Chatham House director Bronwen Maddox, Yunus offered little beyond a securitized ‘send-them-back’ line.
Complex situation. Thank you for keeping your readers updated.