First coronavirus cases in a Rohingya refugee camp
Caritas Bangladesh is helping 60,000 Rohingya families (200,000 people). “We provide for their basic needs like food, housing, medicine, education. Now we have added an awareness programme so that they can be safe from this virus,” said a Caritas official. Refugees also get soap, masks, and a leaflet with information on how to avoid the infection.
Cox’s Bazar (AsiaNews) – Bangladesh is home to more than 800,000 Rohingya who fled mostly Cox's Bazar in 2017 as a result of persecution in Myanmar. They joined others who arrived over previous years. Now the region has 1.15 million refugees divided in 34 camps.
These refugees now face another threat, the coronavirus. Bangladesh yesterday in fact confirmed the first coronavirus cases in a Rohingya refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, in the country’s south-east.
“Two [refugees] were found to be COVID-19 positive,” said Mahbubur Rahman, a local medical doctor. “Now the Rohingya community in Cox's Bazar is at enormous risk. If the virus spreads to the wider Rohingya population, it would be impossible to keep it under control.” If this happen, “The world would see another catastrophe.”
The AsiaNews correspondent spoke to some Rohingya refugees. Many say they live in fear of being infected with COVID-19.
“Although the Rohingya live in camps, at night some go outside and comeback before the sun rises,” said Al-Amin, 25, a Rohingya refugee who works as a volunteer at an NGO-run pre-school. “It is very risk for us. Anytime the coronavirus could spread here.”
Several NGOs are working hard inside the camps to raise awareness among Rohingya about wearing masks, putting on gloves when going out, washing hands several times a day, and keeping social distance.
Caritas Bangladesh is one of the largest charities operating in Rohingya camps, with a staff of 250, helping some 60,000 families for a total of about 200,000 people. Pintu William Gomes, director of Caritas Bangladesh's Rohingya Response Project, spoke to AsiaNews the charity’s work.
“We provide for their basic needs like food, housing, medicine, education,” he explained. “Now we have added an awareness programme so that they can be safe from this virus.” Refugees also get soap, masks, and a leaflet with information on how to avoid the infection.
For Pintu, the Rohingya are not much at risk. “Since they arrived in Bangladesh, they have lived in a lockdown situation because they cannot officially leave the camps.” Only a few Rohingya can leave the camps and if any outsider wants to enter, they would be stopped by guards.
“If security ensures that no Rohingya leaves the camps and that no outsider enters, they will be protected from COVID-19. Plus, the NGOs are teaching them to keep social distance and follow safety measures to avoid contagion.”
As a development worker, Pintu thinks that, unless a treatment is found, human civilisation will have to coexist with the virus.
If that is the case, “we shall have to learn how to live safely whilst coping with this virus in everyday life because we can't keep the lockdown forever. The country needs to go back to work. Without production, the economy will not prosper.”
So far, 283 people have died in Bangladesh as a result of the coronavirus. A total of 18,863 people have been infected and 3,361 have recovered.
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12/10/2017 12:42
01/03/2019 14:13
