COVID-19: Projecting the impact in Rohingya refugee camps and beyond

Shaun A Truelove; Orit Abrahim; Chiara Altare; Andrew Azman; Paul B Spiegel

Finally, refugees face discrimination and are often falsely accused of spreading disease. The widespread rise of populism combined with anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiments that we are observing globally provides a hostile environment that could be exacerbated by a pandemic. We are concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic, while completely unrelated to being a refugee, could be used as an excuse to take retribution against refugees, as well as other vulnerable groups such as IDPs and undocumented migrants. Such retribution could take many forms, including restricting or stopping asylum seekers, which is currently occurring, the closure of camps, and forced repatriation (refoulement, which is against refugee law), all used in the name of public health. Not only would this be morally wrong, it . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.