Refugees during COVID-19 (stay at home)

Current situation: In my room, as usual, just got back from Sainsbury's Eddington; happy to see that people have stopped hoarding

I’ve been chugging along with my dissertation, which is due in about a month’s time. I’m more than halfway through, which is great, but I expect I’ll have to leave lots of time after I complete my draft for editing, because my writing process looks like: wing it, edit later. I’ve gotten more used to being at home all day though—found two excellent Netflix documentaries (Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates; Pandemic) and have been having good laughs watching Friends. My brain has been quite worn out at the end of each day because of mind-bending discrimination law arguments I’ve been trying to untangle and express in my dissertation, and so I haven’t written any more stay-at-home blog posts since my #2. But I decided to start again today. 

For the next few posts I’ve decided to write about particularly vulnerable people this Covid–19 season, who are easily forgotten amidst the self-preserving rush of grocery-shopping, watching the infection tally, and Zooming close ones to cope with the social isolation. Some people don't have the access to supermarkets and the means to afford stocks of food, let alone the luxuries of good internet and Zoom. In these posts I'll explain why some groups are particularly vulnerable, how Covid–19 makes it so much worse for them than for people like me who are comfortably isolating in a college room, and how we can support them even if only from afar. 

Simple meal prep of lentils and potatoes, which I should be exceedingly thankful for, especially when I think of much needier people

Today we start with refugees. I was first struck by the plight of refugees during this outbreak when I saw a SolidariTee post on Facebook on 13 March. Two days prior, the first case of Covid–19 was confirmed in Lesbos. The capacity of the refugee camp there is 2,800, but it has been overstretched to hold 20,000 refugees. Even leaving aside Covid–19, the overpopulation of the camp has made it ‘a place of violence, deprivation, suffering and despair’, says Dr Annie Chapman on The Guardian. Normal events of life take place in these camps: women in labour, babies born, children falling ill. But all these are exacerbated in these camps: Dr Chapman writes that the children have suffered from a new outbreak of meningitis and the newborn babies have to sleep in freezing tents. There are also those problems that are specific to refugees, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or worse from the events that led them to flee their countries. Imagine how escalated these problems now are with the Covid–19 outbreak. They cannot possibly stay 2m apart from each other given the crowd, and given the rapidity of the spread and the shortage of healthcare workers even in host countries' healthcare systems, will refugees get sufficient medical attention?

Some governments have responded excellently. Portugal has temporarily granted full rights of citizenship to migrants and asylum-seekers, so that they have access to the country’s healthcare system. This is a comforting picture of opening doors in a time of adversity, forsaking falsehoods of ‘otherness’ that have kept some of Europe insularly fortressed. It is a good decision to make for Portugal’s sake anyway, as the Council of Ministers said attempting to care for refugees and asylum-seekers in immigration centres would place too much strain on public immigration officials. Not only are refugees human beings who require care and relationship even in a country to which they've been displaced, but around the world refugees have been so willing to help around them with their skills: refugee doctors in the UK have urged the government and General Medical Council to expedite their UK accreditation so that they can be recruited into the medical efforts to counter the pandemic. Similarly refugee doctors in Australia have urged accrediting bodies to speed up.

Is there any way we can help? First, and unashamedly I say, we can pray. Prayer is not a little murmured comfort word I speak into thin air hoping it might help a little. When I do so I believe that God hears us. Of course he does!—if he came to walk upon the earth and pay the price for us to come close to him, he must surely listen and love to answer us. (Check out my post about my faith here if that sounds freaky.) God has always cared for the outsider and refused to allow them to be ignored. In the Old Testament Law, it is written that ‘you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him’. It was also commanded, ‘When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong’, and at a minimum we’re commanded to have in mind the poverty of those who have come to a new country: ‘you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner’. Although these laws do not apply literally now (which I haven’t the space to explain here), it is still a good and timeless reflection of God’s character and heart. He loves to answer and help the refugees in need among us.

Second, there are wonderful charities around the world that have joined in the effort to support refugees this period that we might be able to support in little ways. A couple of examples picked quite at random: UNHCR in the States recently teamed up with Epimonia, a company founded by a refugee living in the USA that makes bracelets and other accessories from recycled lifejackets worn by refugees during sea-crossings. SolidariTee, a charity started by a student at Cambridge (and so feels close to home for me), has committed to dedicating over 75% of each £10 t-shirt bought to protecting refugees from the Covid–19 outbreak. Christian Aid is working in Cox’s Bazar where over 850,000 Rohingya refugees live. They provide hygiene guidance to the refugees, key training for healthcare personnel and frontline workers, and ensure the smooth-running of triage and isolation spaces in the camp clinics. As a Christian I am encouraged to live as a ‘sojourner and exile’ in this world (1 Peter 2:11), looking forward to our eternal belonging with God. This keeps us from fortressing up in our countries and familiar contexts, so that instead we welcome and care for those who are regarded as outsiders.

A beautiful sunset I'm thankful to have caught yesterday evening

I’ll be back soon with another group of people particularly vulnerable this pandemic: victims of domestic abuse.

Further reading:

• BBC, 'Coronavirus: Protecting yourself in a migrant camp' (31 March 2020), a video recorded by refugee filmmakers in Moria camp
• Dr Annie Chapman (for The Guardian), ‘A doctor’s story: inside the “living hell” of Moria refugee camp’ (09 Feb 2020), and bear in mind this was before the Covid–19 outbreak
• UNHCR, ‘Live blog: Refugees in the COVID–19 crisis’ (03 April 2020), from El Savador to Niger to New Jersey