Orlando Bloom begs for international aid at world's largest refugee camp as cuts fuel crisis

 

More than one million refugees live in a network of 33 camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh

Thousands of ramshackle homes line up row after row in the world’s largest refugee camp - as international aid cuts risk plunging fleeing Rohingya Muslims further into a humanitarian crisis.

stonishing drone footage shows the scale of the site at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where more than 1 million people are struggling to survive in a network of 33 squalid camps. Cuts to international aid - including an expected 40 per cent slash to UK budgets - has threatened to leave a generation of children lost.

Now UNICEF is warning they are facing a £10 million funding gap, as they revealed Bangladesh alone has suffered a 56 per cent in bilateral UK aid. Today Hollywood star Orlando Bloom, 49, who visited the camp last year, urged global leaders to step up and help those most at risk of exploitation.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visited the camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, last year to meet children(Image: © UNICEF/UNI894760/Royena Rasnat. All rights reserved.)

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor told the Mirror: "The children I met in Cox's Bazar had dreams for their future. Today, those dreams are at risk. Funding cuts are pushing essential services to breaking point, leaving Rohingya children more vulnerable to illness, violence and missing out on education.

"These children have already endured unimaginable hardship. Their childhoods should not depend on political choices made thousands of miles away, including the decision to cut aid. If caring about childhood is yes in principle, it should be yes in practice.

"That means investing in the health, education and protection children need not just to survive, but to thrive, fulfil their potential and become unstoppable." It is almost a decade since a brutal campaign of persecution forced more than a million Rohingya Muslims to flee Myanmar and make a terrifying journey into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Orlando called for investment in "the health, education and protection children need not just to survive, but to thrive"(Image: © UNICEF/UNI893958/Royena Rasnat. All rights reserved.)

Since then, they have made their homes in Cox’s Bazar, where aid agencies have battled to provide a sustainable place to live. But despite their efforts, they say more than 150,000 children are unable to access education.

Elsewhere 954,616 refugees, including 290,455 children aged under five, have reported skin diseases since January 2025. More than 800 children were affected by grave violations, including abduction, recruitment, injuries and sexual violence, in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

It comes as UNICEF UK launches a new campaign, No Choice But Childhood, highlighting how conflict, extreme poverty and climate change are cutting childhood short for millions of children around the world, while aid cuts risk undermining decades of progress.

Aid agencies say cuts to international aid are undermining the progress being made in the world's largest refugee camp

Jo Rea, UNICEF UK Director of Advocacy, said: "Extreme poverty, climate change and conflict are cutting childhood short for millions of children around the world. Yet with the right investment, a different future is possible.

"As aid cuts threaten to undermine decades of progress, UNICEF UK is calling on the UK Government to dedicate 25% of its international development budget to support and strengthen the vital services and systems that children around the world rely on every day to survive and thrive."

In 2016 the Mirror visited Banfladesh and watched as thousands of Rohingya Muslims trekked for days to escape the hell of Myanmar’s Rakhine district where they were forced out by the military. They found themselves in Cox’s Bazar – 70 miles south of Bangladesh’s financial capital Chittagong.

In 2016 the Mirror's Dan Warburton visited the Cox's Bazar camp to see first-hand the conditions facing fleeing Rohingya Muslims(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Myanmar is overwhelmingly Bhuddist and regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants. The clan – the world’s largest group of stateless people – have been denied citizenship.

The current cycle of misery began in 2012 when rioting left 200 dead, mainly Rohingya. Muslims were largely driven out of the cities and 130,000 set up home in camps in Bangladesh.

An FCDO Spokesperson said: "The UK remains committed to supporting some of the world's most vulnerable people, with over 70% of all UK geographic support allocated to the most fragile and conflict-affected states.

"Across our development work, children remain a priority, including through programmes that boost education outcomes, tackle child malnutrition, champion the rights of women and girls, support vital healthcare services and respond to the climate crisis."