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The United States’ decision to cut its foreign aid program has contributed to a sharp increase in abuses involving children trapped in refugee camps in Bangladesh for persecuted members of Myanmar. Rohingya minority, the Associated Press found.
In interviews with 37 children, family members, teachers, community leaders and aid workers, the AP documented a rise in child marriage, child labor, kidnapping and other violations against children since US President Donald Trump’s decision in January to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.
Take a closer look at AP’s report on the consequences of the aid cuts:
Funding was cut
More than half of the 1.2 million Rohingya living in these camps are children. Bangladesh prevents the Rohingyas from working, and they are unable to return safely to their homeland in Myanmar, which is controlled by the same military that killed thousands of Rohingyas in 2017 in what the US labeled genocide. This has forced them to depend on humanitarian aid to survive.
The United States has long been the largest provider of humanitarian aid to the Rohingya. But in January, Trump slammed USAID as wasteful and closed it down, despite the US spending just 1% of its budget on foreign aid. The move has proven devastating for the world’s most vulnerable people. In Myanmar, the AP found that children are dying of hunger due to aid cuts, despite US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement to Congress that “no one died” due to USAID’s disbandment.
In the Bangladesh camps, Trump’s decision meant the US contribution for 2025 was almost halved from last year. The overall Rohingya emergency response is only 50% funded for the year, and aid agencies say next year is expected to be much worse.
UNICEFThe UN children’s agency lost 27% of its funding due to US aid cuts and subsequently closed 2,800 of its schools in June.
The US has faced funding cuts from other countries, crippling health care, nutrition and sanitation services as well as child protection programs.
Crimes against children are increasing
The closure of schools had a very bad effect on the children. With their learning opportunities cut off, hundreds of underage girls were forced into unwanted marriages, many of which soon became abusive. Hundreds of children under the age of 10 were forced into manual labour. With no safe place to play or learn, children were left to wander in the labyrinthine camps, making them easy targets for kidnappers, smugglers and armed terrorist groups.
According to UNICEF, between January and mid-November, cases of kidnapping and abduction more than quadrupled to 560 children compared to the same period last year. And reports of recruitment and use of children by armed groups for training and support roles in the camps have increased eightfold, affecting 817 children. The agency said the actual number of cases is likely higher due to under-reporting.
Verified cases of child marriage, which the United Nations defines as the union of children under the age of 18, increased by 21% and verified child labor cases by 17% as of September compared to the same period last year. UNICEF’s child protection manager Patrick Halton says these figures are likely to be much lower.
“With funding cuts, we had to make a lot of cuts in terms of education,” Holton says. “That means children don’t necessarily have things to do, and so we’ve seen an increase in child marriage, children in child labour.”
What does America say?
In a statement to the AP, the State Department said the U.S. has provided more than $168 million in aid to the Rohingya since the beginning of Trump’s term, although data from the U.N. Financial Tracking Service shows the U.S. contribution is $156 million in 2025.
The State Department said it has “improved burden sharing and improved efficiency” in the Rohingya response, resulting in 11 countries increasing their funding by more than 10 percent year over year, and collectively contributing $72 million.
“The Trump Administration is stepping up diplomatic efforts to encourage additional countries to help shoulder the burden,” the statement said.
The department did not respond to AP’s request for evidence that the US had any influence on other countries’ funding decisions for the Rohingya response.
What do children say?
Haseena, who was 16 when she was married off after her school closed, is now stuck with a husband who she says beats and sexually abuses her. She dreams every day about school, where she was fluent in English and hoped to become a teacher. Now, she is largely confined to her shelter, cooking and cleaning and awaits the next beating with fear. The AP is hiding her full name to protect her from her husband’s retaliation.
“I dreamed of becoming something, of working for the community,” Haseena says softly. “My life has been destroyed.”
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.
