The Forgotten Ones: Asylum Seekers, Refugees and COVID-19
By Andrew Yuan ’24
Although temporary settlements and refugee camps are less severely impacted by COVID-19 than enclosed city centers, the recent rise in cases of infection raises concern for humanitarian organizations. Despite the escalating crisis, countries still collectively detain asylum seekers and refugees in facilities without necessary protection.
Refugee Camps as New Infection Centers
In early June, while the world was witnessing soaring coronavirus cases, refugee camps surprisingly avoided the crisis. It wasn’t until August that Syria’s Al Hol Refugee Camp, a temporary settlement for 2,000 Palestinians, reported its first coronavirus case. The Zaatari Refugee Camp and Azraq Camp in Jordan, currently hosting a total of 12,000 Syrian refugees, didn’t have any cases until early September.
However, the underlying cause for such low infection rates revealed potential danger. A recent article by Time explains that the external factors of national lockdowns, isolation from communities and shortage of test kits were the main contributors to the low number of detected coronavirus cases in refugee camps.
Aid agencies, fearful of a sudden rise in infection rate, continued to emphasize the need for better medical facilities and isolated spaces for those in quarantine. Most governments refused to comply, however, citing the need to prioritize the protection of nationals over nonnationals. But even those who complied, such as the Bangladeshi government, failed to meet the guidelines outlined by WHO and the United Nations’ Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
Fears of a case explosion have become the harsh reality. In most refugee camps, there has been a significant rise in both the number of cases and the infection rate. By early October, Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar Refugee Camp, home to 860,000 Rohingya refugees, had already detected 89 total cases. In Greece late September, 240 refugees in the new camp of Lesbos tested positive for COVID-19, and the number is still growing exponentially. Globally, UNHCR reports that, among the 30 million displaced, a total of 21,000 refugees have tested positive for coronavirus.
With insufficient control; lack of medical supplies; and crowded spaces, scientists and the United Nations predict that the spread of coronavirus among refugees will likely only accelerate in the near future. Yet, governmental agencies are still refusing to cooperate with humanitarian agencies, blindly blaming and inciting hatred against refugees.
Exploitation of Asylum Seekers
With travel restrictions and lockdowns, multiple governments are using COVID-19 to deny asylum. Notably, the Trump administration is abusing its border closure to amp up its rejection of refugees. In the six weeks after the travel restrictions came in place, the United States denied entry to around 20,000 asylum seekers.
The Trump administration has also exposed asylum seekers to unnecessary danger. In late August, ICE released a report finding 5,379 total cases of infection among detainees. The administration still enforced 450 deportation flights, causing super spreader events with dozens of infected travelers bringing the virus back to Latin America and the Caribbean.
However, some other governments have implemented effective measures to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on asylum seekers. In Canada, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced that the country will grant residency to all asylum-seekers who are working in fields most negatively affected by COVID-19, including hospitals and healthcare industries. Most Latin American countries, such as Chile, Argentina and Peru, have agreed to employ asylum seekers and refugees in national health systems. Such policies have allowed refugees to earn adequate income during this economic crisis, with substantial contributions to the host countries themselves.
While other governments need to learn from the above examples, all humanitarian organizations and governmental agencies must call for international cooperation to tackle the escalating crisis in refugee camps.