That is a difficult question because I'm not personally [Inaudible—Editor] to the point of pushing for trade sanctions, but definitely increase humanitarian assistance. That's for sure. That would be one of my main concerns at the moment, because during my recent trip to Myanmar, I understand that the international community seems to have, and the donor community, as well, some fatigue about the situation, and of course I'm looking for a way to try to get things moving.
One of the discussions I have heard of is about trying to move a bit away from simple humanitarian assistance, like blanket humanitarian assistance, and to move to early recovery and then development assistance. I question how development assistance can benefit the Rohingya if they cannot move and go anywhere. I still feel it is important that the Canadian government as well as other donor countries continue to guarantee that, at the minimum, humanitarian assistance will continue to be directed to the Rohingya in the camps and elsewhere, where it's needed.
At the same time, I also have been told that the World Food Programme, for example, is experiencing funding cuts, and as a result they have now decided to shift their blanket food assistance to more targeted assistance to vulnerable people. I didn't mention this in my testimony, but there are also a number of internally displaced persons—IDPs, as we call them—in the camps. They have not been assisted by the authorities for several reasons, including because they arrived later than others. For these people, of course, there was the sharing of rations already, which has been reduced, as I mentioned.
The situation of the Rohingya, displaced, and others has definitely reached the brink already. Cutting humanitarian assistance to them, also threats to try to push the government to find some solution, to me, are definitely not appropriate. I have very particular concerns about that. I want to make sure that assistance from the international community will continue. I know there are a lot of cuts nowadays because of the many crises in the global arena, but I'm trying to find a solution for the crisis.
My last discussion was about the head of mission group that was set up in Yangon. It included the Swedish ambassador. I think it was led by the Danish ambassador, but also there was very strong participation by the U.S. ambassador as well as a European representative, the U.K, if I remember well, and Turkey. I didn't see Canada as part of that. They seem to be pushing a plan now, which unfortunately, they did not release to me, but which included short-term, mid-term, and long-term steps to reach a solution. The key message they did reveal [Inaudible—Editor] is coordination in addressing the issue of freedom of movement and access to services as a priority.
Nevertheless, I have some comments on that, because obviously freedom of movement and access to [Inaudible—Editor] are intrinsically related to citizenship. Seeing that the citizenship issue, as I also described in my testimony, really is stalled and stuck at the moment, I do not want to see the international community actually forget about the citizenship issue just because it seems an intractable issue.
Yes, that's why pressure is needed, and I think constant pressure. I assume also that the NLD government will probably be able to get some more support in terms of business contracts and other things. I think that foreign governments should definitely not forget the situation in Rakhine State. It should remain high on the agenda.