All around the world, the numbers are climbing. Each day registers thousands of new cases and lives lost. In Europe, now the epicenter of the pandemic, governments know that the worst is yet to come and are implementing increasingly restrictive measures to enforce social distancing and isolation. In Cox’s Bazar, we have been watching the world and holding our breath for the first confirmed case of Covid-19. With reports of the first confirmed case in the local community in Cox’s Bazar, it’s just a matter of time until the virus reaches the vulnerable population living in cramped conditions in the largest refugee settlement on earth. Thousands of people could die.
One million Rohingya refugees, half of whom are children, have been sheltering in sprawling camps in Cox’s Bazar since August 2017, when they were forced to flee their homes in the face of horrific violence. For almost three years, Rohingya refugees have been telling us they want to go home and resume normal life. They want their children to go to school and for families separated by the conflict to be reunited. So far, international attempts to hold Myanmar accountable for alleged crimes against the Rohingya and improve conditions in Rakhine state have failed spectacularly. In short, it will be years until the Rohingya see justice.
As global life grinds to a halt in a bid to contain the coronavirus, we must remember that for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, their lives have already been in limbo for years; it is their status quo, and it will not end with the containment of coronavirus.
If there is one lesson for refugees that we must take away from this crisis—it must be that refugee camps, and a life in limbo, should never be considered an acceptable long-term solution. We must challenge perceptions that because the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar escaped Myanmar with their lives, they are safe. The coronavirus is a warning to us that there is not endless time to resolve the issues in Myanmar that would finally allow the Rohingya to return home. While the people and Government of Bangladesh have generously continued to shelter the Rohingya for years, life in the camps is not safe.
The Bangladesh government’s internet blackout and phone restrictions at Rohingya refugee camps are obstructing humanitarian groups from addressing the COVID-19 threat, Human Rights Watch said today. The shutdown is risking the health and lives of over a million people, including nearly 900,000 refugees in Cox’s Bazar and the Bangladeshi host community by hindering aid groups’ ability to provide emergency health services and rapidly coordinate essential preventive measures.
“The Bangladesh government is in a race against the clock to contain the spread of coronavirus, including in the Rohingya refugee camps, and can’t afford to waste precious time with harmful policies,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should lift the internet shutdown, which is obstructing crucial information about symptoms and prevention, or end up risking the lives of refugees, host communities, and healthcare workers.”
Internet access in the camps has been shut down since September 2019, following a directive from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. Though the authorities described the decision as a security measure, this broad restriction on communication was neither necessary nor proportionate, both of which are required under international human rights law.
Aid workers and community leaders rely on WhatsApp and other internet-based communication tools to coordinate emergency services and share important information in the camps. The shutdown prevents effective dissemination of coronavirus information as well as impeding aid workers’ ability to conduct “contact tracing” to contain transmission of the virus. A community health volunteer said their group had used WhatsApp to connect medical supporters, but “[now] we cannot connect to provide our services.”
Since September 2019, Bangladesh has restricted mobile-phone operators to limit 3G and 4G services in Rohingya camps
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a “controllable pandemic.” To control the pandemic, WHO experts recommend “social distancing” to prevent the spread of the disease and thus “flatten the curve” of infection.
But social distancing isn’t an option available to the more than one million Rohingya refugees living in densely populated camps in Bangladesh. The conditions of the camps and their tight living quarters cause these refugees to face a dangerously high risk of contracting and spreading the virus. To make matters worse, Rohingya are not allowed to leave the camps or move freely within them. The camps also lack access to sufficient water and sanitation—conditions that could worsen the spread of a communicable disease like the coronavirus, known as COVID-19.
Bangladesh has confirmed more than 45 cases of coronavirus infections—with the first confirmed case in Cox’s Bazar District where the Rohingya live in one of the largest refugee settlement in the world. If COVID-19 reaches the camps, it is likely to spread like wildfire. To keep refugees safe, it is paramount that Bangladesh provides Rohingya refugees with access to the internet, mobile communications, and information about the pandemic.
But Bangladesh is doing just the opposite. Since September 2019, Bangladesh has restricted mobile-phone operators to limit 3G and 4G services in the camps. Bangladesh authorities have gone even further than just cutting mobile-phone communication: My colleagues and I at Fortify Rights have documented how authorities have prohibited the use of mobile phones in the camps and are confiscating them from Rohingya refugees.
More than a million Rohingya live cheek to jowl in the world’s largest refugee camp. If the Bangladeshi authorities don’t move expeditiously to prepare for the arrival of COVID-19, it is all but certain to be catastrophic, not only for the Rohingya but Bangladesh and the rest of the world.
I was born and raised in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh but was fortunate to be resettled 11 years ago in the United Kingdom through a United Nations program. I visited my birthplace last December and saw the harrowing conditions of the camp – open sewers, malnutrition, virtually no social services or educational opportunities. I spent two months in the camps living with my grandparents and extended family, where I shared the small bedroom in which I had been born with eight others. I was horrified that the situation for the million refugees was no better than when I left.
Even under the best of circumstances, it is beyond the means of Bangladesh, a poor and densely populated country to provide substantially better conditions. But it is within the power of the government of Bangladesh to lift the internet blackout that has kept the Rohingya largely cut off from the outside world and which leaves them especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
For over six months, Rohingyas have not had access to the internet or cell phone data. They have been cut off from news about their relatives still in Myanmar, international developments concerning their future, and most recently, accurate and reliable information about COVID-19 and the steps countries are taking to address it. They would have no means of knowing, for example, who has tested positive for coronavirus in the camps or how to contact hotlines as opposed to showing up at hospitals which may be already at overcapacity.
The Bangladesh government’s internet blackout and phone restrictions at Rohingya refugee camps are obstructing humanitarian groups from addressing the COVID-19 threat, Human Rights Watch said today. The shutdown is risking the health and lives of over a million people, including nearly 900,000 refugees in Cox’s Bazar and the Bangladeshi host community by hindering aid groups’ ability to provide emergency health services and rapidly coordinate essential preventive measures.
“The Bangladesh government is in a race against the clock to contain the spread of coronavirus, including in the Rohingya refugee camps, and can’t afford to waste precious time with harmful policies,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should lift the internet shutdown, which is obstructing crucial information about symptoms and prevention, or end up risking the lives of refugees, host communities, and healthcare workers.”
Internet access in the camps has been shut down since September 2019, following a directive from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. Though the authorities described the decision as a security measure, this broad restriction on communication was neither necessary nor proportionate, both of which are required under international human rights law.
Aid workers and community leaders rely on WhatsApp and other internet-based communication tools to coordinate emergency services and share important information in the camps. The shutdown prevents effective dissemination of coronavirus information as well as impeding aid workers’ ability to conduct “contact tracing” to contain transmission of the virus. A community health volunteer said their group had used WhatsApp to connect medical supporters, but “[now] we cannot connect to provide our services.”
Bangladesh has begun lockdown in all 34 Rohingya refugee settlements in the country’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar as part of its effort to stem coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities have asked more than one million members of the persecuted Rohingya community, who have migrated from Myanmar’s Rakhine province, to stay inside their makeshift camps until further notice.
“Since this morning [Wednesday] we have started s lockdown in all Rohingya camps as per guidelines issued by the government due to the prevailing scare over coronavirus outbreak,” said Md Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC).
Citing the global spread of coronavirus Talukder told Anadolu Agency: “It will be a very difficult job for us to control the situation if coronavirus spreads in the crowded Rohingya camps.”
He said it was because of this fear that we are asking Rohingya to stay home. “We are fully aware and urge them [Rohingya] to stay home and not move except for emergency needs,” he said.
According to John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, Bangladesh has so far reported 39 cases of coronavirus with five deaths. Thousands of others have been kept under home quarantine to stem the spread of the lethal virus.
Assuring continuation of emergency services despite lockdown Talukdar said that his office has pleaded for the restoration of internet services in the Rohingya camps.
“Already a letter from Foreign Ministry has been sent to Home Ministry, seeking resumption of internet services in the Rohingya camps,” he said, adding that the services will be restored in the shortest possible time.
The sewage-soaked alleys and cramped canvas and bamboo shacks that house one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are a horrifying scene for experts watching the coronavirus pandemic creep closer.
The wretched conditions in the camps, where most of the stateless Muslims arrived in 2017 to escape a Myanmar military clampdown across the nearby border, are fertile ground for any disease.
The public in other countries are being told to keep two metres apart. That is the width of most paths in Kutupalong, the world’s biggest refugee camp with 600,000 Rohingya, that are clogged each day with people out on the daily hunt for food and fuel.
Masks that have become a daily essential in much of the world are rarely seen. Sanitiser is unheard of.
Each shack is barely 10sq m and they are overcrowded with up to 12 people.
“You can hear your next-door neighbour breathing,” said one aid worker.
Social distancing is “virtually impossible” in the camps, Bangladesh head of Doctors Without Borders Dr Paul Brockman said.
“The scale of the challenge is immense. Vulnerable populations such as the Rohingya will likely be disproportionately affected by Covid-19,” the illness caused by new coronavirus, he told AFP.
VIRUS BLACKOUT
Bangladesh has reported only a handful of coronavirus deaths and less than 50 cases but the public and experts fear there are many more.
The Rohingya barely know about the disease as the government cut off most Internet since late last year under measures to clamp down on the refugees.
Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Cox’s Bazar Mahbub Alam Talukder confirmed the development
All activities, except for emergency services, will be suspended at all 34 Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar from Wednesday in a bid to fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) till Tuesday confirmed a total of 39 coronavirus cases in the country.
Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus, so far has killed more than 16,500 people in over 190 countries and territories including four from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Cox’s Bazar Mahbub Alam Talukder confirmed the development to Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday.
He said: “All activities will be suspended in every camp from tomorrow [Wednesday]. However, emergency services with respect to food, health, and medicine will continue as usual.
“All gatherings, including religious ones, will be barred. We have also asked the camp residents to pray at home rather than in mosques.”
RRRC Talukder, the top government official on the ground in relation to the Rohingya crisis, also said: “Schools and madrasas will also remain closed.
“The message is very clear; always stay at home for the security of yourself and others.”
RRRC Talukder also said that apart from those involved with emergency services, no one would be allowed to go out of the camps and come in.
“We have also decided not to allow any new foreigner to enter the camp. This will not be applicable to those who had been working here before the beginning of the crisis,” he added.
Rohingya leaders have been spreading the message for the community to be tested for the Covid-19 virus after 2,000 of them were said to have attended the tabligh gathering at Masjid Jamek in Sri Petaling.
They disputed the figure, saying that at most hundreds could have attended the event.
Rohingya Society of Malaysia (RSM) president Bo Ning Maing said a voice and video message has been shared with the community via the WhatsApp messaging application and on Facebook, urging those concerned to go for the test.
“Many in the community are unable to read and write, so this is the most effective way to get the message across,” he added.
As of February, there were 101,010 Rohingya refugee and asylum seekers registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia.
Rafik Shah Ismail, a Rohingya community leader with the Human Aid Selangor Society, said he got to know that only several members of the community attended the event.
“I’m not sure how the big number came about because most of our community cannot afford to take a day off from work,” he said.
He added that he had gone door-to-door to send flyers to the community in Gombak on the importance of getting tested for the virus.
Rohingya refugees in India can now document their life stories in a comic book, thanks to a collaborative effort by two non-government organisations based in the capital New Delhi.
The comic titled Rendered Stateless Not Voiceless was put together by World Comics India, a collective that promotes comics as a communication and empowerment tool for the marginalised section of society.
The idea was formed as a collaboration between the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (RHRI) and World Comics India, driven by the idea that a “comic book can be used as a medium to give a voice to the voiceless”.
“There are almost 70 stories narrated and sketched by participants themselves including myself. The idea is to create awareness of our life stories with first-hand stories shared by the participants,” Ali Johar, education coordinator at RHRI, told Al Jazeera.
“As most of the Rohingya refugees have no way of sharing their stories, the book gives them a platform to share them, as well as have ownership of their own stories in the book,” Johar, 25, told Al Jazeera.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are currently 17,500 Rohingya registered as refugees in India. However, the real figure could be higher, with Indian media putting the figure at about 40,000.
Threat of deportation
India’s Hindu nationalist government, which views Muslim-majority Rohingya as “illegal immigrants” and a security threat, has pledged to deport them back to Myanmar where they faced persecution. New Delhi maintains good relations with Naypyidaw.
