“People here have been very engaged in the election results. There has been a lot of conversations about Biden and people are very optimistic now. I don’t think he will be racist like Trump.”
(Abdi, a Somali living safely in Kenya)
From Kakuma to a town near you!
Yup, they are chomping at the bit to get to Anytown, USA as soon as they can!
Muslim Somalis and Rohingya voice their enthusiasm and expectations here at Reuters:
From Asia to Africa, refugees hope Biden win could help rebuild lives
Joe Biden’s U.S. presidential election win [not so fast!—ed] has raised hopes of resettlement for refugees from Asia to Africa, many in countries where they are denied work and education and have no formal status.
[….]
President-elect Biden is expected to try to reverse much of Trump’s immigration legacy including travel bans on 13 countries that are either majority-Muslim or African nations.
He has also said he would raise the annual ceiling for refugee admissions to 125,000, but has not indicated how quickly that would happen.
Danielle Grigsby, Refugee Council USA’s Director of Policy and Practice, said there were many reasons to be optimistic about more progressive refugee and immigration policies under the Biden-Harris government.
“There has been a lot of early signals on from the Biden-Harris team to get rid of some of the totally unnecessary hurdles that have been put in place to intentionally slow refugees from coming to the U.S.,” said Grigsby.
[….]
In Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than one in four of the world’s 80 million refugees and displaced people, tens of thousands of people have had their applications for resettlement suspended since Trump took office in 2017.
[….]
U.N. data shows 2,636 Somali refugees have so far been resettled in the United States under the present administration against the 32,068 Somali refugees accepted under the second term of former President Barack Obama.
[….]
“People here have been very engaged in the election results. There has been a lot of conversations about Biden and people are very optimistic now. I don’t think he will be racist like Trump,” he said by phone.
Not just Somalis itching to get here, but expectations have been raised among Rohingya in Bangladesh ….
Rohingya Muslims waiting in Bangladesh for a Biden ticket to America.
Sharifah Shakirah, a Rohingya former refugee who moved to Texas after 21 years in Malaysia, said resettlement was the best solution for the nearly a million members of her ethnic group living in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar. [Bangladesh is a safe Muslim country.—ed]
“One million Rohingya in Bangladesh have no livelihood, no security, no education,” she said. “They cannot live there for another 10 years. They need a solution and resettlement is one of the solutions.”
Once again, Bangladesh is a safe Muslim country. Just being poor isn’t sufficient to be declared a legitimate refugee under international law.
I have been following the Rohingya migration for more than a decade so if you are interested in learning more about the issue see my Rohingya Reportsarchive with 243 previous posts.
When the Chinese virus began spreading around the world the international press, the UN, and international NGOs used the Rohingya as an example of poor refugees that, due to their living conditions, would be ravaged by the virus. It never happened. No virus “wildfire” in the Rohingya camps or the African camps either. Hmmmm?
Months ago I began following the dire warnings from the international humanitarian industry and its media arm about the “vulnerable” refugees living cheek by jowl in massive camps where social distancing and wearing masks is not happening.
But, surprisingly the high numbers of cases and deaths that have been predicted are not happening.
See my previous postshere, here, and herefor example.
This morning I dutifully (because I promised I would continue reporting on the topic) began searching for any updates that might have happened while I was busy on other issues over the last couple of weeks, and guess what!
There is no explosion of cases, no COVID “wildfire” blowing through camps.
The only story of any interest was this one, but it mostly focuses on the fear/mistrust Bangladeshis have of the Rohingya refugees living in their country—fear that the refugees are spreading disease, which they aren’t.
I know you have more important concerns, but I think it is very strange that the predicted “carnage” has not arrived. The lack of spread raises questions about the whole concept of social distancing as a means to stop the virus.
Rohingya scapegoated as Bangladesh battles COVID-19
DHAKA — “Two more Rohingya die from corona: Locals in panic” — screamed a recent newspaper headline in southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.
Social media has sometimes been equally hysterical. One college teacher posted on Facebook that lack of awareness about COVID-19 among Rohingya refugees from Myanmar “will lead to our collapse.”
In August 2017, more than 740,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in northwestern Myanmar’s Rakhine state and entered Bangladesh as refugees. The United Nations described it as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Bangladesh already had 200,000 refugees from earlier Rohingya exoduses that began in the 1970s.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated resentment in the densely populated country toward the refugees, and also brought further uncertainty to their chances of repatriation.
[….]
Abdul Mozid, a rural physician, runs a drug store near Kutupalong camp, a sprawling settlement made of bamboo and plastic sheets that is home to over 500,000 refugees. “Camps are like slums,” he told the Nikkei Asian Review. “People are scared that this will spread the coronavirus.”
More here, but it is mostly about the Rohingya Muslims and the fact that Burma, a Buddhist country that wants to remain Buddhist, doesn’t want them there, populating and pushing for Muslim control of the country. LOL! The article doesn’t say it, but that is what is happening.
There was this other interesting bit of new news on the issue of the Chinese virus and its impact on refugees, or lack of any great health impact so far.
It is about a World Health Organization study where they are trying to assess the impact of COVID-19 on refugees and migrants. It is called ‘Apart Together.’
Maybe because they aren’t finding enough sick refugees, they are switching focus to find out about the “psychosocial impact of COVID-19.”
(I assume planning to use the results to badger western countries once the panic dies down.)
ApartTogether is a global study to assess the public health social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on refugees and migrants. It is a collaboration between World Health Organization, across its regional offices, the UN System, and a consortium of research centres led by Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). The study aims to better understand how refugees and migrants experience the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 and how they deal with any challenges that have arisen.
In collaboration with key UN partners, the insights from this survey will be used to inform policy and decision-makers on how they can better support refugees and migrants during and after this pandemic. The survey runs until 31 August 2020.
This is the latest update on the Chinese Virus that we have been hearing for MONTHS will bring “catastrophe” to the world’s “vulnerable” refugee population.
Media vultures waiting to blame Trump (if they could) for refugee deaths from the Coronavirus!
It isn’t happening yet, although one gets the feeling that the liberal media is like vultures just waiting for the “carnage” to begin.
See my previous post here, with links to posts prior to that. The COVID is not exactly running like a “wildfire” through the massive camp for the Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh.
Big test for the concept of social distancing!
The first case was reported in mid-May and the first death at Cox’s Bazar was on June 3rd! Now there are five deaths.
Cox’s Bazar refugee camps: where social distancing is impossible
Social distancing simply isn’t possible for the 1 million Rohingya refugees who live in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, in southeastern Bangladesh.
Families live in close quarters inside flimsy bamboo shacks, using communal toilets and water facilities. Sometimes the most basic items, such as soap, are lacking.
Most of the Rohingya refugees living in the camp fled there in 2017, following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military, which the UN has since said was carried out with “genocidal intent”. On top of psychological trauma, many have underlying health conditions that leave them especially vulnerable to Covid-19.
The UN, and other agencies, have raced to open new facilities in Cox’s Bazar,but equipment is still extremely limited, and it is feared medical centres could be quickly overwhelmed. As of 28 June, 49 cases and five deaths have been recorded.
Kind of makes you wonder if all the social distancing is a bunch of you-know-what and that there is some other reason for the large number of sick Americans.
Previous posts on COVID and Cox’s Bazar can be found in my Rohingya Reportscategory.
And, you know if COVID was rampaging like “wildfire” through CROWDED camps housing millions of “vulnerable” refugees the “carnage” would make headlines worldwide today!
Try as I might, I could find no new stories about my personal petri dish—the huge camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh where we are told a million Muslim Rohingya live cheek by jowl in huts with no way to social distance.
I’ve been following the dire warnings on the expected crisis in the camps for months.
The first death at Cox’s Bazar was reported on June 3, here. That is over two weeks ago. We know of one more, so where is the carnage?
Here is a short video from the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and the World Health Organizationapparently in time for World Refugee Day today!
The UNHCR says this (not exactly what the Leftwing media is going to trumpet):
We have not seen, or not seen yet I should say, major outbreaks where we feared the most in large concentrations, in refugee camps.
Watch it:
But, see here that the international humanitarian industry has moved on to link the Chinese virus to hunger and is warning of a double whammy of starvation and death by COVID.
Here is one thing they say you can do!
Write to Congress and tell them to send more of your tax dollars (borrowed from China) to feed the world.
You can save lives by being an advocate for the hungry, especially the refugees. Bread for the World encourages citizens to write letters to Congress urging them to make global food aid a priority in the budget.
I will be watching and continue to report when (if!) the virus crisis does impact the world’s migrant populations—a real test of the value, or lack of value, of social distancing, or mask-wearing for that matter!
As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20th, expect to see more stories like this one about the plight of a growing number of refugees (they are always growing, so nothing new there!) whose movement is blocked not by racist border restrictions, but by the Chinese Virus that has closed borders since late March.
On March 22nd the United Nations, with its branch called the International Organization for Migration that facilitates refugee travel, shut down almost all refugee movement.
Indeed it had to because 150 countries have closed their borders completely or have strict requirements for movement across them.
I had been wondering if the UN is restarting the flow, but apparently not.
The story atStuffis mostly about New Zealand that had just begun in earnest to ‘welcome’ the third world when COVID began its deadly spread.
But, here are a couple of bits that interested me besides learning that the UN continues to be responsible for the moratorium, not Donald Trump as I see most days in the US media.
Scores of refugees in limbo as quota system in holding pattern due to Covid-19
As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20 we have the highest number of refugees worldwide than ever before.
According to the latest UNHCR figures, there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people, including more than 41 million internally displaced people and 25 million refugees.
Only 1 per cent of those 25 million refugees are resettled. That number is now at zero because of Covid-19.
More than 150 countries have closed their borders or put in border restrictions.
The vast majority of them have no exceptions for people claiming asylum.
They have no exceptions for refugees who need to flee their countries because of persecution, human rights abuses or war to be able to bypass border restrictions connected to Covid-19.
Flow of money is stopping too!
Rarely do we hear about the amount of money that refugees and migrants send HOME from the country where they have migrated to—money lost to the host country’s economy.
Migrant workers would not able to send money home to support their families and communities in their countries. The economic impact on those migrant workers and the decline in their livelihoods is going to have a massive impact on remittances, he adds.
“Latest figures are that remittances will go down $100 billion globally.”
It is about a World Health Organization study where they are trying to assess the impact of COVID-19 on refugees and migrants. It is called 
And, you know if COVID was rampaging like “wildfire” through CROWDED camps housing millions of “vulnerable” refugees the “carnage” would make headlines worldwide today!