Three years into the Rohingya refugee crisis, women, men and children – driven from their homes in Myanmar into camps across the border in Bangladesh – are more vulnerable than ever, UN agencies have reported.
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), almost all refugees remain entirely dependent on food assistance to survive.
Disrupted supply chains due to COVID-19 lockdown measures are also affecting availability of fresh food said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the UN agency, told a media briefing on Tuesday.
Pandemic
The pandemic has also hit the scaling up of WFP’s e-voucher programme. Efforts to cover all camp residents, originally planned to be completed in the first half of 2020, have been pushed towards the end of year due to the outbreak.
Measures have been taken to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 at in-kind distribution sites where about 12 per cent of refugees receive rice, lentils and oil, added the WFP spokesperson.
She urged the international community to continue supporting response efforts, without which the situation could rapidly deteriorating.
There are fears that an uncontained outbreak of COVID-19 in the refugee camps, such as the main camp in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh – the largest and most overcrowded in the world – could be devastating.
With several hundred thousand people living in an area of just 13 square kilometres, social distancing is almost impossible.
In addition to COVID, relentless rain and hazardous weather have added to the challenges. According to humanitarian reports, over 100,000 refugees have been affected due to the heavy monsoon rains, this year, that destroyed shelters and washed away crops.
Disrupted learning
Lives of Rohingya refugee children have also been severely hit by the pandemic. Education centres in the camps have been closed since March, as is the case in the rest of Bangladesh, keeping more than 300,000 children and adolescents away from learning opportunities, according to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
UNICEF and partners are assisting efforts to help children learn at home, engaging parents and caregivers to support learning and providing workbooks and visual aids. However, significant challenges remain, including the fact that many parents cannot read and write.
In spite of the incredibly difficult circumstances, the refugee population is actively participating in response efforts to prevent and manage the threat of COVID-19.
With the reduction of humanitarian workers in the camps to limit the spread of coronavirus, humanitarian organizations and UN agencies have established new ways to deliver critical services and raise awareness on the disease, said UNICEF.
Darul Ihsan Media Desk