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Nearly one million more people live in the world’s largest refugee camp, the Kutupalong camp in southern Bangladesh.
And with a population density higher than Manhattan’s, Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar are the ideal breeding ground for a coronavirus that thrives in overcrowded spaces with poor sanitation.
“We get a lot of patients. In this area, it is difficult to handle cases of home isolation or quarantine due to overcrowded living conditions,” said Debashish Chakraborty Debu, isolation center coordinator at HOPE Field Hospital.
Refugees are fully assisted for their day-to-day survival. And life situations are awful. The houses are small and built with fragile fabrics, while bathrooms and sanitary amenities are common.
“This space measures 18 feet by 12 feet, with 10 of us in this little place. We are going through a very difficult time,” said Mohammed Osman, a Rohingya refugee, sitting next to his wife and children.
A crackdown through the Burmese army in August 2017 against the Rohingya minority Muslim population triggered one of the largest population movements in history.
Myanmar government says the attacks were against militants. More than 700,000 more people fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in the following months, wasting everything.
“We came here because the Burmese set fire to our homes and shot us,” refugee Majuma Khatun told Business Insider Today. “Then, to save our lives, we went to the mountains. We walked in the mountains all night. Then we crossed the river by boat, that’s how we got to Bangladesh.
With home refugees traumatized by what the UN calls an “ethnic cleansing” campaign, coronavirus is only worsening an already terrible situation.
“With the monsoon, the erosion of the soil, the floods, it’s a very, very complicated environment,” said Louise Donovan, communications officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “The camps are incredibly overcrowded. There are more than 40,000 more people in a square kilometer. And with the threat of COVID-19 transmission, this makes the life of this population very complicated.”
The World Food Programme supplies food to each and every refugee in the camps, but closing restrictions mean that the organization will have to restrict the number of times other people can scale at their distribution points.
“The concept of social estrangement is almost imaginable,” said Alex Dattani, the World Food Programme’s cash operations representative. “Refugees are afraid, they’re afraid, they’re afraid.
While Bangladesh is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is only a matter of time before Rohingya camps also succumb.
The first case detected on 14 May, with the first death at the end of the month. As of July 12, there were 57 cases shown in refugee camps and five deaths, according to World Health Organization figures.
“First, I wash my hands with soap,” Today Jahura Khatun, a Rohingya refugee, told Business Insider Today. “Then smart hygiene for children. We give the kids a mask. We all wear mask, we don’t socialize with the neighbors. We stayed home.”
The United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have been working to build new diagnostic, isolation and repair centres for COVID-19 patients. And now, with monsoon season going, they’re also working to counteract the risk of landslides and other waterborne diseases.
The HOPE Foundation for Bangladesh opened a 50-bed treatment and isolation center for COVID-19 patients at the end of June.
“Here in the new unit, we treat patients with symptoms of fever, runny nose, sore throat, which in medical terms is called a flu-like disease,” said Debu, the center’s coordinator. “We keep them separate from our main hospital to prevent them from spreading the infection.”
The region’s first extensive care unit was also opened in late June at Sadar Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, with ten extensive care beds with fans and 8 beds for high-level people of purification. In total, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees aims to create 1,900 beds for coronavirus patients.
But just when aid is high, 80% of NGOs are banned from entering camps to reduce the threat of transmission.
“This means that several facilities have been reduced and that we are reduced to important activities. So it’s incredibly difficult, but we’re doing everything we can,” Dattani said. in addition to network awareness, it now depends on Rohingya volunteers. With an Internet outage imposed through the government, this will have to be done door-to-door, loudly or by radio.
“These groups are looking for contacts, making sure that the entire close circle of close relatives or close contacts are quarantined and also examined without delay,” said UnHCR’s Donovan.
“So we’re doing everything we can to reduce the threat of further transmission. It is conceivable that population density can spread quickly, and potentially this can overwhelm the responsiveness we have lately.”
The Rohingya see no end to their suffering. Fortunately, COVID-19 instances have so far been low compared to the region in general.
Moyuna Begum is a refugee and needs to go where she can, and has obtained an education from the World Food Programme on the manufacture of face masks.
“Everyone is scared. People think about it outside, but now they’re attacking us. People are dying and suffering from the disease,” he said. “To help them avoid this situation, I am pleased to do so. Regardless of whether I get paid or not, other people will be alive and keep me in their prayers.”
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