Tag: Bangladesh

Chinese Virus Update from Refugee Camp in Bangladesh

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I saw this headline (below) this morning, I figured this was it—COVID-19 was running like a “wildfire” through the largest refugee camp in the world—Cox’s Bazar—where reports say that a million “vulnerable” Muslim Rohingya live check to jowl in filthy conditions—a prime location for coronavirus “carnage.”

From Devex:

As COVID-19 deaths rise in Cox’s Bazar, is increased testing enough?

Regular readers know that I have been following the dire warnings now for months about the “catastrophe” the international humanitarian community and the mainstream media has been predicting for Cox’s Bazar and other large refugee camps around the world.

Described by the mainstream media as a “tinderbox,” no social distancing is possible at Cox’s Bazar refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims

 

See my previous post here about the first Chinese Virus death in the camp.

Now here is the story about how the deaths have been rising (remember the first case of Covid was reported a month ago)—rising to two!

MANILA — Bangladesh has reported a second death due to COVID-19 in the Rohingya refugee community in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday along with five new positive cases.

[….]

Bangladesh has put areas of Cox’s Bazar on lockdown over the weekend. Cases in the district have gone over 1,000, according to the latest government data. However, only a small percentage comes from the refugee community in Cox’s Bazar, where 35 cases have been reported to date since the first one was confirmed last May 14.

So much for modeling out of Johns Hopkins!

An earlier modeling analysis by Johns Hopkins University in March projected that a single case there could lead to an estimated 119-504 cases under a low- to high-transmission scenario in the first 30 days.

“The numbers are not rising as we had feared. However, all the conditions are present for an extremely serious situation for one of the most marginalized people groups in the world,” Matt Ellingson, director of relief and humanitarian affairs at Food for the Hungry, told Devex last week.

More here.

We will be watching and reporting on this important test area for the value (or lack of value) of social distancing.

The best way to see my previous posts on the virus at Cox’s Bazar is to see my Rohingya Reports category where I have archived all of my posts for the last dozen years about Rohingya refugees.

Still on the Hunt for Chinese Virus at Cox’s Bazar

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Now, we are told, the reason so few cases have been reported at the world’s supposedly largest refugee camp in Bangladesh is that the residents fear they will be isolated if found to be infected and are therefore refusing testing.

I know this is likely boring for most of you, but since I started following the warnings of “catastrophe” and “carnage” as the Chinese Virus spread “like wildfire” to camps where “vulnerable” migrants live in close proximity to each other, I’m compelled to give you updates.

Literally for months there have been dire predictions of the impending crisis, that has not yet materialized.

Only one death of an old man so far as I said here on Wednesday.

Here is the latest from Reuters:

Fear stops Rohingya getting tested as virus hits refugee camps

BANGKOK/DHAKA (Reuters) – Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with symptoms of the novel coronavirus are not coming forward to get tested because they fear being separated from their families and held in isolation, community leaders and aid workers say.

Only one death from the coronavirus has been recorded in the crowded camps in southeast Bangladesh, where some 730,000 Muslim Rohingya fled in 2017 to escape a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Yale Economics Professor Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak visited the camp and told Reuters he is sure the disease prevalence is much higher than testing so far indicates. https://faculty.som.yale.edu/mushfiqmobarak/

But aid workers fear the coronavirus may be spreading faster through the world’s largest refugee settlement than the 29 cases confirmed since mid-May would indicate. Only 339 tests have been carried out in the camps, officials said, partly because people were simply not going to health facilities to get checked.

“Camp hospitals are empty and illegal doctors’ shops are full,” said 23-year-old refugee Mujef Khan, a community organiser, referring to pharmacies in the camps run by refugees where people buy pills to treat themselves.

“Many people are getting sick day by day – in every shelter,” he said.

Three Rohingya leaders interviewed by Reuters said coronavirus symptoms were prevalent in the camps that sprawl out over hills near the border with Myanmar.

The camps are more densely populated than the most crowded cities and sanitation is poor and social distancing impossible. [This will be the ultimate test in my opinion of whether social distancing matters or not!—ed]

While new testing facilities and treatment centres are being built, a surge in cases could overwhelm the camps, aid workers said.

Much more here.

I guess if they aren’t bothering to be tested, they aren’t that sick.  However, they won’t be able to hide the deaths and so we will then get a better indication if the “tinderbox” has exploded as the media has been predicting literally for months!

I have been writing about the Rohingya for nearly 13 years.  You need to know they are being resettled in the United States right now.  See my Rohingya Reports category to learn more about this Muslim ethnic group.

Cox’s Bazar Update: Eleven Cases of COVID So Far, No Deaths

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Mayyu Ali is a young Rohingya poet, writer, and humanitarian activist who runs the Youth Empowerment Centre in the refugee camp at Cox’s Bazaar. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2019/spring/rohingya-refugee-mayyu-ali

As I said in my post a week ago, I have been following the international news for two months now warning of the impending disaster that would soon befall some of the big refugee camps around the world as the Chinese Virus continues to spread.

I said I would report on a regular basis on the topic.

So far, the “carnage” has not arrived as we learn from an Op-Ed written by a young Rohingya political activist whose opinion piece was posted at the Washington Post on Thursday.

One of his complaints is that the country of Bangladesh, where the largest Rohingya Muslim communities are located at Cox’s Bazar, is that internet access is not available in the camp and was shut off last September.

However, if you are interested you can search activist/author Ali and see that he has access to the media at facebook/twitter and including here at the Washington Post on Thursday:

The world’s largest refugee settlement is in the crosshairs of a cyclone and a pandemic

On March 24, Bangladesh confirmed the first covid-19 case in the city of Cox’s Bazar. Since then, the government imposed a lockdown in the area, including for the camps where more than 1 million Rohingya refugees — myself included — are surviving. On May 14, Bangladesh reported the first two confirmed cases within the camps itself — a Rohingya refugee and a local Bangladeshi person.

The nightmare of what we and the world have feared for months had finally arrived at our doorsteps — and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The very next day, humanitarian groups used loudspeakers to warn us about Cyclone Amphan, a super-cyclone that was the strongest storm on record in the Bay of Bengal. The groups raised two red flags together in camps, one to signal the detection of the coronavirus in refugee camps and the other to signal the cyclone.

Wednesday night marked the Night of Decree for Muslims, the night when the Koran was first sent down from heaven to the world. Rohingya refugees in camps were waiting for the night to seek safeguard from Allah. While thousands were preparing for prayers, heavy rain and wind started to strike.

Cyclone petered out….

Cyclone Amphan may soon dwindle in Cox’s Bazar, but the monsoon season is just about to arrive. No monsoon leaves the Rohingya refugee camps without devastation. Every year, there are accounts of landslides, shelters destroyed and flooding in camps.

However, our greatest fear is still the spread of the novel coronavirus in the overcrowded camps. Every day brings new confirmed cases in Cox’s Bazar. By Wednesday, there were reportedly 11 confirmed cases in Rohingya refugee camps.

The patients are kept in the isolation facilities that have been newly constructed by United Nations agencies in refugee camps. Refugees who were in contact with those patients were placed in quarantine in Cox’s Bazar, a densely populated area where social distancing is a fantasy. [As I have said previously, we will now have the ultimate test of whether social distancing is significant or not in slowing the spread.—ed]

[….]

Every morning, we hear about new cases in refugee camps and fall deeper into fear.  [But, only 11 so far, right? No deaths?—ed]

Those who fall ill with fever and coughing are afraid to go to the international NGO-run clinic in camps. There are rumors that those who are found with this virus are shot to death. Many refugees are afraid of getting tested for the virus.

Read it all.

I sure hope Mr. Ali and other political activists are out trying to dispel that ignorant rumor, or there could be a Chinese virus crisis at Cox’s Bazar. Sometimes I think the mainstream media is secretly wishing for that outcome.

See over 200 additional posts on Rohingya in my Rohingya Reports category.

 

Will the Chinese Virus Bring “Carnage” to Cox’s Bazar?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Now that the virus has entered the world’s largest refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar we are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19.”

(Dr. Shamim Jahan)

 

Two days ago I told you that the first cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed at a refugee camp in Bangladesh housing tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims.

The mainstream media has been predicting “catastrophic” carnage for weeks.

I’m going to report on the effect on the camp in the days and weeks ahead because I think it will be illustrative on the issue of social distancing.

I’m not wishing for a certain outcome, nor am I predicting what will happen.  I will just report.

When it comes to anything to do with the Rohingya, the mainstream media’s myopic view is not to be trusted. Combined with its coverage of COVID, finding facts will be a challenge.

In breathless tones I see that NPR, the Hill, Deutsche Welle, the BBC and Reuters are all jumping on the news they have been waiting for over the last two months.

Here is NPR with its dramatic headline:

COVID-19 Has Arrived In Rohingya Refugee Camps And Aid Workers Fear The Worst

 

It’s the moment international aid groups have been dreading for months — the coronavirus has reached the sprawling refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of southern Bangladesh, home to roughly a million Rohingya refugees.

Save the Children’s health director in Bangladesh, Dr. Shamim Jahan.

Bangladesh officials said on Thursday that at least two people living in or adjacent to the camps have tested positive for the coronavirus and have now been quarantined amid fears of a humanitarian disaster if the virus spreads unchecked.

“I’m deeply concerned, but, sadly, not surprised at all,” Deepmala Mahla, CARE’s regional director for Asia, told NPR.

“I am scared, I am worried, but I also feel that this is a stark reminder how vulnerable the Rohingya refugees are,” she said.

Save the Children’s health director in Bangladesh, Dr. Shamim Jahan, is worried, too. In a statement, he warned of the “catastrophic” effect of the virus on the Rohingya, and on Bangladesh in general.

“Now that the virus has entered the world’s largest refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar we are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19,” he said.

Continue reading here.

See my Rohingya Reports category with over 200 posts extending back a dozen years.  The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group that is permitted to be resettled in the US (there is no Muslim ban!).

After Two Months of Dire Warnings, a Couple of COVID Cases Appear in Refugee Camps

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m posting this news because I have been following (for weeks!) the media’s hyper focus on the Chinese Virus and its potential threat to large refugee camps worldwide.  Now it appears the first cases have arrived.

The value of social distancing (or lack of it) is about to be tested.

Over two weeks ago I told you that the carnage watch was on, see here.

In case you don’t think the Rohingya have anything to do with you, think again.

You need to know that Rohingya Muslims (there is no Muslim ban!) are being resettled in the US in large numbers (prior to the COVID shutdown) during the Trump Administration.

Here is one story about Rohingya refugees staging a political protest in Arizona a couple of years ago with a little information for you on the Rohingya back story.

See over 200 additional posts on Rohingya in my Rohingya Reports category.

Their situation is much more complicated than the superficial media-created meme that depicts them as pure as the driven snow while Burmese Buddhists are their persecutors.

From the BBC:

Coronavirus: Two Rohingya test positive in refugee camp

Rohingya camp at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

 

Two Rohingya refugees have tested positive for coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, officials say.

These are the first confirmed cases among refugees in Cox’s Bazar, where around one million Rohingya are encamped, a government doctor said.

Officials told the BBC that those infected were now being treated in isolation.

About 1,900 other refugees are now being isolated for tests.

The Rohingya in the crowded camps of Cox’s Bazar have been living under lockdown since 14 March.

In Greece, which is also home to large numbers of refugees, officials are hoping to relocate around 1,600 vulnerable persons from its camps to other countries as the pandemic eases.

Two migrants who reached Greece’s Lesbos island this week tested positive for Covid-19 and were isolated with no contact with refugee camps on the island.

More here.

Go here to read about the big Greek camps.  A couple of newly arrived African migrants have tested positive for the Chinese virus, but notice that the big island camps are still largely not impacted.