Resettlement Offers a Vital Lifeline to Syrian Refugees
Displaced Persons and Refugees
The United Nations works around the clock to prevent the pandemic from wreaking havoc on refugees, migrants and other vulnerable populations already facing humanitarian crises. In cramped camp settings, measures to avoid community transmission such as physical distancing and frequent handwashing, are difficult to implement. To prepare for a potential outbreak of the coronavirus in the camps, UNHCR and partners have started constructing isolation and treatment facilities. Refugees and internally displaced people themselves are also responding to the looming threat of COVID-19.
UNRWA launches a rapid response distance learning plan, the “Education Cannot Wait” initiative for 118,000 Palestine refugee students in 169 schools due to COVID-19 closures.
The number of people fleeing conflict or violence but remaining within their own countries has reached an all-time high. 8.5 million new displacements resulting from conflict or violence were recorded in 2019. Another 25 million were triggered by disasters such as cyclones and hurricanes. UNHCR speaks with the Director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre about internal displacement and her chief concerns in 2020, especially in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
Moheyman Alkhatavi is an Iraqi refugee who works as a nurse at a hospital in Abadan, Iran. He is part of a team of dedicated nurses working tirelessly on rotation to monitor some 50 new patients admitted to the quarantine unit each week while they await COVID-19 test results. There are close to one million refugees in Iran, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq. From the onset of the pandemic, the Government of Iran has made efforts to ensure refugees have access to health services.
COVID-19 is taking lives and changing communities but the virus is also inducing massive protection risks for women and girls forced to flee their homes. Confinement policies and quarantines have led to restricted movement, reduced community interaction, the closure of services and worsening socio-economic conditions. UNHCR warns that these factors are significantly exacerbating the risks of intimate partner violence, especially for displaced and stateless women and girls.
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked an outpouring of solidarity from people around the world. This reaction includes refugees keen to help in the countries where they now live. Many refugees in Europe involved in medicine in their home countries are finding new ways to use their skills to help care for those in need. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) features the stories of doctors from Libya and Somalia, among refugee medics joining the battle to fight COVID-19 and save lives.
UNHCR’s leading public health expert says prevention and inclusion must be at the heart of the response for displaced people, especially in areas with weak health services. The Refugee Agency is working to slow the spread of the corona virus, reduce its impact and save lives among the refugee population and internally displaced peoples. Most of the world’s 25.9 million refugees are hosted in developing countries, putting extraordinary strain on already fragile local health-care services.
Quasai and her family of 9 are doing everything they can to keep the virus away. The UN and partners are working around the clock to mitigate the risks, but more resources are urgently needed.
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.
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.
As countries reduce entry to their territories, refugee families are directly impacted by travel restrictions caused as a reaction to the COVID-19 global health crisis. Refugees may face delays and family separations. Some countries also place holds on resettlement arrivals. Adding the increased risk to exposure refugees may face, IOM and UNHCR suspend resettlement departures for refugees. This is a temporary measure that will be in place for as long as it remains essential.
UNHCR welcomes new law allowing 50,000 stateless people in Uzbekistan to gain citizenship after providing recommendations to national authorities during its drafting.
