Gaia Vince reports on the growing fears of an imminent, catastrophic outbreak of covid-19 Bangladesh, with its 168 million inhabitants, is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world. She has developed strong friendships with them. Lambasia is one part of the refugee settlementquarantined in a Japanese port in February, on which more than 700 cases were confirmed within a month of the first passenger testing positive. Noor is now able to take daily showers at any time of the day. Woman frying red chillies in Vembakkottai camp. They were dirty and smelled, which created an unhygienic environment,’ Tearfund’s Response Manager in Bangladesh, Nicholas Biswas says. But it wasn’t safe for them to stay. In many countries, social-isolation policies have created anxiety, and led to some panic-buying and hoarding.
Asking people to wash their hands thoroughly in warm water sounds like a cruel joke. “Allah will save us from corona,” says one mosque-goer.Sign up to our free daily newsletter, The Economist todayThe world’s refugee camps are a coronavirus disaster in waitingAs covid-19 ravages the globe, more and more governments are urging their citizens to stay at home. Deepmala Mahla, Asia regional director of CARE International, a charity, worries that the water-point could be where they catch covid-19. With scarce local resources, the majority of the camps depend on external aid for survival.
For many years the Dadaab complex was the largest, until it was surpassed by Bidi Bidi in 2017. The situation in the camps has changed and people are starting to breathe fresh air. More than 911,000 people have fled violence in Myanmar and are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Noor felt like she had no other option but to wash at night, in the dark, while other families were sleeping. They are surviving in extremely basic conditions. Children in refugee camps are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, child marriage and other forms of exploitation and violence.These spaces have brought back a sense of normality for Alamgir and his family, and for countless others too.Alamgir is now a community leader in the area of the camp where he lives. Those on the other side of the border, in Idlib province, have no such protection. Pugnido refugee camp, located in western Ethiopia, is the world’s eighth-largest refugee camp, with a population of over 60,000 people. Already Greece has quarantined two refugee camps—one on the island of Euboea and one near Athens—after residents tested positive for the virus.
These are a lifeline – a place for children to play and just be themselves, as well as take part in informal learning.They are vital in making sure that the very real threat of a lost generation of Rohingya does not come true. This interactive map, created in commemoration of World Humanitarian Day (August 19th), identifies the 10 most populous refugee camps in the world, drawing attention to the plight—and the resilience—of the planet's most vulnerable populations, and to the organizations working tirelessly to protect them. Millions live cheek by jowl in slums, where 10 or more households share a toilet. People are in urgent need and so last summer we launched an emergency appeal to help those who had lost everything. “You have to choose between buying food and buying soap,” says Marie, leader of a Christian civil-society group.Most troubling of all, as camps around the world brace for the pandemic’s arrival, is the lack of access to medical care. Delighted, Habiba and her family can use the showers and other facilities whenever they need to. “Sometimes we receive flour mixed with sand, or beans so old they have to be cooked for two days,” complains a former teacher called Céline, who is now one of their elected representatives.Access to water and sanitation can be tricky, too. Human-rights activists disagree, and given the current Tanzanian government’s callous attitude to refugees, it is hard to imagine that it will do enough to protect them.In Cox’s Bazar, the Bangladeshi authorities, in order to stop the Rohingya mobilising and staging protests, have banned them from using mobile phones and shut down the internet in the camps. Whatever help NGOs can provide, it is unlikely to reach Idlib, where sometimes several families are forced to share one tent, access to running water, food, and electricity remains scarce and there is no authority to impose any form of lockdown. Around the world, nearly four million refugees reside in planned or self-settled camps. As the virus rages, many are struggling to meet the needs of their own citizens.Often their hosts are only too keen to see the displaced go home. Exhausted health workers lack the most basic equipment. This week (9 July), South Sudan – the youngest nation on Earth – marks its ninth anniversary as an independent country. Scared, bereft of choice, she also limited the risks by only washing a few times a week.After speaking to the people living in the camp, Tearfund’s local partners built a female shower block in an accessible and safe space in the camp. Habida was one of the people our team met with and she requested a light system that we were able to provide.Now a solar light powers the local area. Noor says these showers have given her family their dignity back.‘The WASH systems in the camps were very bad. Those still operational have fewer than 100 ventilators between them, says Abdul Hakim Ramadan, public-health co-ordinator at the Idlib Health Directorate.