Social distancing, the mainstay of covid-19 response in the rest of the world, is not possible for refugees living in crowded camps
EERIE SILENCE shrouds the shops of the Lambasia refugee camp in Bangladesh, broken only by the tinny summons of the call to prayer, echoing down deserted streets. As if from nowhere, Rohingya men and boys emerge, filling the narrow trenches that run between their bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters. Some wear masks that match their prayer caps—lip-service to the soldiers on patrol as their wearers flout a ban on gatherings.
Conditions in the camps are ideal for the virus to spread. For a start, many are crowded. Lambasia is one of 34 refugee camps located outside the border town of Cox’s Bazar. Home to more than 850,000 Rohingya, the camps house 40,000 people per square kilometre. For comparison, it is twice as densely populated as themore than 700 cases were confirmed within a month of the first passenger testing positive.
Most troubling of all, as camps around the world brace for the pandemic’s arrival, is the lack of access to medical care. Syrian refugees who make it to Turkey can rely on a robust system of free health care. Those on the other side of the border, in Idlib province, have no such protection. Having escaped one indiscriminate killer, Bashar al-Assad, they risk being cut down by the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands have huddled into squalid tent camps or abandoned homes.
The conditions in the camps are bad enough. And even host governments willing to help refugees do not always have the resources to do so. More than 80% of refugees and almost all internally displaced people have taken shelter in low- and middle-income countries. As the virus rages, many are struggling to meet the needs of their own citizens.
Without the internet, NGOs are disseminating information through pamphlets, megaphones and radios. But these methods are far less pervasive, leaving a void, easily filled by rumours. Some call covid-19 “morona bhairas”, meaning dying virus, believing it to be fatal. Others claim it can be prevented by consuming various concoctions, including a mixture of salt and sugar, a popular diarrhoea cure. Some even believe that doctors kill those who are found to have the virus.
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