The Refugee camp Moria extends like a wild city over the olive groves. 20,000 people live here; it is the largest camp for migrants and refugees in Greece – and in Europe. People spend the night in shaky tents or under tarpaulins.
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The hygienic conditions are catastrophic: rubbish is everywhere, the stench is difficult to bear. Families live in a few square meters: the accommodations are so dense that sometimes a spark is enough to start a fire. A child died yesterdaywhen part of the camp went up in flames.
Thousands of people share a sink in Moria. Residents say they sometimes have to queue for hours to get something to eat.
In many European cities, people avoid social contacts these days, hoard disinfectants and wash their hands every half hour. But people on the run do not have this option. The cramped conditions in the camps are the perfect breeding ground for diseases.
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“Impossible” to prevent an outbreak
Doctors without borders warn that it is “impossible” to catch an outbreak in a Greek refugee camp.
Fear of the virus is also increasing in other refugee camps. In Greece’s neighboring country Turkey although only a fraction of the roughly 4 million refugees in total lives in camps, most of them make their own way through the cities. But at the Turkish-Greek border, the situation is coming to a head. Thousands of migrants have been staying here since the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced two weeks ago that it would open the border to Europe.
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South of Bangladesh lies Cox’s Bazar, one of the largest refugee camps in the world. In late summer 2017 hundreds of thousands were found here Rohingya – that’s the name of the Muslim minority in Myanmar – taking refuge in their home country. Around 850,000 people are currently crowding here, that is more people than Frankfurt am Main has residents – on hardly more than a tenth of the area.
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There are only three confirmed cases of coronavirus in Bangladesh and all of them in the north, far from the camps. But hardly any experts want to be sure that it will stay that way. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world – and one whose health system is already overwhelmed.
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Helpers therefore try to prevent the virus from entering the camp at all. The World Health Organization (WHO) has had infrared thermometers distributed at the airport near Cox’s Bazar, incoming travelers are to be tested for fever. Hospitals in the area were equipped with additional protective clothing. In the camps themselves, signs warn of Covid-19 and advise residents that they should wash their hands properly.
Visits are kept to a minimum
Similar standards have been introduced in other refugee camps. In Kenyawhere around 500,000 people from Somalia and South Sudan live United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Mobile phone messages asking them to report symptoms as soon as possible. At the entrances to the Kukuma and Dadaab camps, controls have been stepped up: if you want to go inside, you will now be asked where you have been in the past few weeks.
“Our employees only make visits that are really necessary,” says Eujin Byun, spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Kenya. You absolutely want to prevent a foreigner from bringing the virus to the camp. Those who are on home leave were therefore asked not to return to Kenya for the time being.
Because Kukuma and Dadaab have existed since the 1990s, the infrastructure there is better than in other places: Many people no longer live in tents, but in brick rooms; there are hospitals and a water supply. The UNHCR has increased its soap stocks and plans to distribute them soon. “Nevertheless, we see the risk,” says Byun. There has been one confirmed case of Covid-19 in Kenya.
How should refugees pay a doctor?
The danger is even greater in areas where refugees are not officially integrated into the system – and are therefore not entitled to medical assistance. in the Lebanon According to estimates, there are more than a million people who have fled Syria. There are informal tent cities, but no official state refugee camps. People who are sick often have to pay for their own treatment: the health system is largely privatized. What from? The Syrians are already living in precarious conditions: More than 70 percent are considered poor and live on less than four dollars a day.
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“Malnutrition makes people susceptible to disease anyway,” said Jason Straziuso of the International Committee of the Red Cross. “That’s why Covid-19 is at the top of our radar.”
It is not only the illness itself that worries the helpers: Refugees are already being treated in many countries as uninvited guests that one would like to get rid of quickly. An outbreak could increase hostility to the already abused people. “Panic and discrimination have never solved a crisis,” warns UN refugee commissioner Filippo Grandi. He asks for “empathy for those who are most vulnerable.”
“In war, Covid-19 is not your main concern.”
Probably the most vulnerable right now are those people who live around the Idlib region in Syria. There is hardly any medical care there – if the virus were introduced there, people would basically be left to their own devices. “I don’t want to downplay the danger,” says Staziuso of the International Committee for the Red Cross. “But when you’re at war, Covid-19 isn’t your biggest concern.”
In Lesbos Meanwhile, MSF calls for the Moria camp to be evacuated “before it’s too late”. The Greek government has other plans. People are only allowed to leave the camp every hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in specially designed police buses. The Greek government will soon begin fencing the camp. If Covid-19 breaks out, the camp will be cordoned off for two weeks.
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