UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom has urged global leaders to step up support for more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as international aid cuts threaten to deepen the humanitarian crisis in the world's largest refugee camp.
The 49-year-old Hollywood star, who visited the camp at Cox's Bazar last year, made the appeal amid warnings that funding gaps are pushing essential services to breaking point. UNICEF has revealed a £10 million funding gap, while Bangladesh has suffered a 56 per cent cut in bilateral UK aid, including an expected 40 per cent slash to UK budgets.
Children's dreams at risk
Bloom, known for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean, 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."
He added: "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."
Bloom called for investment in "the health, education and protection children need not just to survive, but to thrive, fulfil their potential and become unstoppable."
Scale of the crisis
More than one million people are struggling to survive in a network of 33 camps in Cox's Bazar, where thousands of ramshackle homes line up row after row. 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.
Despite the efforts of aid agencies, 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.
Call for UK investment
UNICEF UK has launched 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.
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."
She added: "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."
The Mirror first visited the camp in 2016, watching as thousands of Rohingya Muslims trekked for days to escape 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.
Myanmar is overwhelmingly Buddhist 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."
They added: "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."
