From Cox's Bazar to Calais: Covid-19 bears down hard on refugees and migrants

For many poor migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees who live in lurid conditions, often in overcrowded accommodations, social distancing is a privilege, and medical attention is a distant dream. During a global pandemic, these become life-threatening circumstances.In Europe, refugee camps are bracing for an outbreak of the novel Coronavirus. Greece, where refugees live in squalid conditions, is desperately attempting to ship migrants from Moria,  Europe’s largest refugee camp, before the virus hits. And across the continent, in France, refugees living in the dystopian camps in Calais scoff at the ludicrous notion of social distancing.The pandemic is also casting a heavy shadow on Asia. In West Asia, countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria have some of the world’s largest numbers of displaced people per capita while in South and East Asia, countries like Bangladesh, host to large numbers of the Rohingya minority fleeing from the conflict in Myanmar, are scrambling to prevent a major outbreak in refugee camps, as cases are set to be confirmed anytime now inside the camps.In this episode of the New Arab Voice, we focus on how the refugee and migrant population is at a greater risk under the present pandemic, why this is likely to spur a new humanitarian crisis, and what aid organizations are doing to deal with this threat.We’ll be speaking with Rula Amin, from the UNHCR on how they are supporting refugees at this time, Ro, a resident of the largest refugee camp in the world in Cox's Bazar, and Ali Mohamed,from Migrant-Rights.org in Bahrain on how migrant workers in the Middle East are at particular risk. Finally, keep listening to hear a conversation with Dr Dawn Chatty emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Oxford, regarding the history of migration in the region and what it can teach us about the future after the pandemic.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more.(Produced by Gaia Caramazza, Music by Omar al-Fil @elepheel. To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TheNewArabVoice) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.