Displaced people and host communities all over the world are at heightened risk as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. The UN Refugee Agency and its staff support their actions.
UNHCR
Early in March, before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Samuel Suárez was already giving at-risk Ecuadorians in rural areas lifesaving tips to avoid infection. The medic started going door-to-door to explain the dangers of the spreading pandemic to elderly people in Ecuador’s Esmeraldas province, hoping that his advice would be heeded and the spread of the virus avoided. During the house calls, Samuel patiently walks his small audiences of senior citizens – the demographic most susceptible to the illness – through the steps needed to protect themselves and others.
Although the number of reported and confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection among refugees remains low, over 80 per cent of the world’s refugee population and nearly all the internally displaced people live in low to middle-income countries and need urgent support. Many refugees live in densely populated camps or in poorer urban areas with inadequate health infrastructure and WASH – water, sanitation and hygiene – facilities. Prevention in these locations is of paramount importance. The UN Refugee Agency detailed a series of measures it is taking in its field operations.
As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates, at greatest risk include some 70 million children, women and men uprooted by war and persecution. Among them are some 25.9 million refugees, more than three quarters of whom live in developing countries in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. With weak health systems, some of those countries are already facing humanitarian crises. The UN Refugee Agency seeks US$255 million for its urgent push to curb the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in these vulnerable communities.
If ever we needed reminding that we live in an interconnected world, the novel coronavirus has brought that home. No country can tackle this alone, no part of our societies can be disregarded if we are to effectively rise to this global challenge. The coming weeks and months will challenge national crisis planning and civil protection systems, and will certainly expose shortcomings in sanitation, housing and other factors that shape health outcomes. Our response to this epidemic must encompass, and in fact, focus on, those whom society often neglects or relegates to a lesser status. Otherwise, it will fail.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for urgent action to address the increasingly desperate situation of refugees and migrants in reception centres in the Aegean islands. “Conditions on the islands are shocking and shameful,” said Grandi. “Greece – with European support – has to act now to deal with an untenable situation, while the longer-term measures are put in place.”
Nakout hasn’t seen her daughter Achan since she was kidnapped by a Ugandan rebel group in 2003. After escaping from the group, Nakout became a refugee in Finland. She has written a letter to her long-lost daughter in the hope they can begin to rebuild their relationship.
Out of 1.4 million refugees estimated to be in urgent need of resettlement worldwide, only 63,696 were resettled through UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, last year. While the number of refugees resettled in 2019 increased modestly by 14 per cent when compared to the previous year, in which 55,680 people were resettled, a tremendous gap remains between resettlement needs and the places made available by governments around the world.
Four years ago Maya Ghazal fled the fighting in Syria. All refugees come to a new country hoping for a fresh start, but Maya stands out because of the determination with which she has pursued her goals. Now a trainee pilot, she’s advocating for opportunities for refugees.
It was as joyous a boat trip as they will ever take. The passengers sang cheerfully from the moment the launch left the dock in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were refugees, 200 of them returning home across the Oubangui River, to the Central African Republic, or CAR, for the first time in six years. They had fled violence and upsurges of civil conflict that erupted in 2013. Now, thanks to a voluntary repatriation agreement signed in July between the governments of the two countries and UNHCR, they were going back.
On graduation day, proud parents Osmar and Valeria beamed with pride. But this very special graduation honoured the accomplishments not only of the couple’s two school-age children, but rather of the whole family, marking their completion of a programme aimed at helping lift refugees out of extreme poverty and giving them the tools to rebuild their lives.“They trained us in entrepreneurship, and we also took a class about how to manage our finances,” said Valeria, a 32-year-old former hairdresser from Venezuela, who opened her own event planning business after fleeing to Ecuador. After receiving accommodation assistance from UNHCR and its partner in Ecuador, the family was selected to participate in a refugee integration and poverty prevention programme known as the Graduation Model.
In this quiz, you are the leader of a country which is about to become home to a large number of refugees. What kind of leader are you?