Rohingya Refugees Camp in Bangladesh: A Time Bomb Amid Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreak

Tabassum informs that the Bangladesh government has locked down Rohingya camps since March 26 morning and has also confirmed a death case, in Khagrasori, in Chittagong Hill Tracks. An exclusive report for Different Truths.

“We tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away.” ~ Albert Camus, The Plague

According to BBC News 5.30 GMT, Thursday (March 26, 2020) one has been confirmed with Coronavirus. From unsupported sources, it has reported that the Bangladesh government has locked down Rohingya camps since March 26 morning. Bangladesh government has also confirmed a death case this morning, in Khagrasori, in Chittagong Hill Tracks, which is nearby to Cox’s Bazar, where Rohingya camps are situated.

March 26 is the Independence Day of Bangladesh. For the first time in the country’s 49 years since independence, the country is observing the day in silence.

Bangladesh goes for unofficial Lockdown (public holiday declared from March 26- April 4). Emergency services are open. Transports shut down. Flights cancelled, and people encouraged to stay at home.

Bangladesh government doesn’t have the luxury to implement social distancing in the camps. Bangladesh goes for unofficial Lockdown (public holiday declared from March 26- April 4). Emergency services are open. Transports shut down. Flights cancelled, and people encouraged to stay at home. If anyone is seen in the road without proper emergency, he/she will be fined or jailed as per Communicable Disease Prevention Act, 2018, and trying to implement the social distancing to prevent the spread COVID-19. Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in Bangladesh face a great danger beyond our imagination. What happens if the virus takes hold in the world’s most vulnerable communities?

Health officials sound an alarm that the refugees are going to be left acutely vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19. There are one million Rohingyas cramped into Cox’s Bazar’s 34 refugee camps. They have limited access to water, sanitization. Self- isolation could present a dire prognosis for the disease.

Vital information about the illness and its preventive measures due to restricted Internet and mobile data access put in place by the Bangladesh government made the situation complicated.

Vital information about the illness and its preventive measures due to restricted Internet and mobile data access put in place by the Bangladesh government made the situation complicated. We need to focus on the following:

· Social distancing is not an option in the crowded camps, where many families are packed into makeshift shelters and built-up tents and stalls

· The matter of language hinders communication to spread awareness.

· Limited internet access is a barrier to spread awareness among people as early as possible.

· NGO organisations have conducted many awareness faces to face sessions, meetings, but in time we can find out how successful those were.

· Norwegian Refugee’s Council states the fact that the virus will inevitably hit the camps. As of March 26, 2020, Bangladesh is setting up to isolation centres, one for refugees in Cox’s Bazar and one for staff, amounting to a total of 100 quarantine beds to service the camp population.

· With the presence of WHO and international NGOs, the lack of inability to find health information online has increased anxiety for some in the camps, who are generally aware of the pandemic.

· Bhashanchor, where shelters with better living conditions were built to rehabilitee the Rohingya community, has been declared on March 25, 2020, as shelters for the mainstream Bangladeshi people, who would be economically affected by COVID-19. If COVID-19 hits the camps, with an exponential rate, then 100 beds in Cox’s Bazar will not help the situation.

Above all, those who are working for this Rohingyas, from home and aboard, their health safety will at higher risk. It may pose a threat of community transmission of the disease in the southeast part of Bangladesh, namely Chittagong Division.

 

WHO is now trying to ensure that everyone understands the basics and risk prevention methods. That has so far included ongoing communication through radio, video and messages passed by imams and other community leaders

There is no doubt that WHO has a long record of working in the camps along with other international NGOs. WHO is now trying to ensure that everyone understands the basics and risk prevention methods. That has so far included ongoing communication through radio, video and messages passed by imams and other community leaders. We understand camps’ crowded conditions pose a greater risk than usual. So, the responsibility falls not only on WHO and other organizations but also on the government. Bangladesh needs to strike a balance between refugees and protecting the public health of a nation. The world community has a duty to these helpless refuges. With a bleak outcome, if the virus did indeed take a route in the camp, it will spread like bushfire. There will be an unimaginable loss of lives. It appears that pandemic is just the latest burden to fall on the shoulders of the stateless Rohingya ethnic group, the members of which have been driven from the motherland, Myanmar’s Rakhine state in clearance operations conducted by the Myanmar military in August 2017.

 “The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster.” ~ Bill Gates

Photo from the Internet.