US official sought to end aid for Rohingya refugees, email says

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration official overseeing the dismantling of the main U.S. foreign aid agency proposed phasing out help for crisis-torn Lebanon and the Rohingya, the world's largest stateless population, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.

Written on February 16 by Peter Marocco, the acting USAID deputy administrator, the email provides a window into some of the thinking behind the administration's drive to terminate aid programs that it does not believe benefit the U.S.

In it, Marocco appeared to want the Rohingya and Lebanon to express their gratitude for U.S. support, saying the U.S. "should procure some type of consideration or good faith from the recipient populations to the American people."

The email directed Tim Meisburger, the head of USAID's humanitarian affairs bureau, to draft an “Action memo” drawing U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's attention to “the odd dependency” of Lebanon and the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on U.S. aid.

It should outline options for “how we recommend, immediately, sending the signal, that though we have compassion, people had the warning on November 5, and things will have to change," Marocco wrote, referring to Trump's 2024 re-election.

"Please propose the best method and timeline of weening this dependency and what we might seek, from them – or partners. Nothing is owed,” he wrote, apparently meaning an absence of any U.S. obligation to provide further support.

A source with knowledge of the issue confirmed the authenticity of the email and that Marocco sought to phase out aid to the Rohingya and Lebanon.

Marocco "is not convinced these people need more aid," the source said.

The State Department declined to comment. Marocco and Meisburger did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not determine whether Meisburger sent the requested memo to Rubio or how much U.S. aid continues to flow to Lebanon or the more than 1 million Rohingyas who have fled violent persecution in Myanmar that the U.S. in 2022 declared a genocide.

The United States provides military, humanitarian and other assistance to Lebanon.

Marocco sent the email as he and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency were launching a drive to shrink USAID and merge its remnants into the State Department.

They have fired hundreds of staff and contractors and terminated billions of dollars in services on which tens of millions of people around the world depend. Rubio on Monday said more than 80% of all USAID programs have been canceled.

ROHINGYA AID COVERED BY WAIVER

The drive began hours after Trump took office on January 20, with the Republican president ordering a 90-day freeze on all foreign assistance pending reviews of whether aid programs conformed with his America First foreign policy.

Food aid for the Rohingya and Lebanon was shielded by a waiver from the freeze for emergency food aid issued by Rubio on February 24, the source said.

Four days later, Rubio granted a waiver for all life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such aid.

The U.S. has been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017, according to a State Department website.

More than 1 million Rohingyas live in squalid camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar, and according to the U.N. refugee agency, 95% of Rohingya households depend on humanitarian assistance.

Others have sought refuge in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Thailand and elsewhere.

The United Nations earlier this month warned it will have to cut monthly food rations to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6 next month, unless it can raise more funds.

Visiting Cox's Bazar on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. will do all it can to help prevent cuts to the refugees' rations.

Lebanon has been rocked by a series of crises, including an influx of refugees from Syria, political paralysis, a financial collapse, a blast that devastated Beirut's port and fighting that erupted in October 2023 between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement that uprooted tens of thousands.

The U.S. long has viewed Lebanon's stability as critical to that of the region and sought to counter the influence that Iran has exerted there through Hezbollah, part of Tehran's Axis of Resistance against Israel.

To that end, successive Democratic and Republican presidents, including Trump in his first term, have approved since 2001 more than $5.5 billion in humanitarian, military and other aid for Lebanon, according to a USAID website.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)