Refugees still need help – Overseas Aid commissioner

The retired doctor and his wife, Claudine, visited a Rohingya refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh at the beginning of February.

They saw that money from Guernsey was helping provide the refugees with basic needs, such as access to clean drinking water and sanitisation.

But Dr Paluch is concerned that with the Overseas Aid & Development Commission’s work on hold due to coronavirus, the people will suffer.

The commission announced recently that it was suspending its overseas aid programme for 2020 and returned a large part of its budget to Policy & Resources to help with the on-island fight against the coronavirus.

‘This is clearly the right thing to do in current circumstances but it does mean that projects which might have been supported will not now go ahead, including one that would have improved the health facilities available within the Rohingya camp,’ Dr Paluch said.

‘Many islanders are suffering financial hardship themselves at the moment, and few people have any money to spare, but nevertheless having met so many desperately vulnerable families, particularly children, recently and seen their suffering at first hand we feel compelled to help them if we possibly can.

‘So if anyone feels able to make a donation, however large or small, it will be forwarded directly to the team of doctors and nurses working in the emergency health post we visited in Camp 15 and it will be used to buy the equipment and medicines needed to save as many lives as possible.’

At the time of the couple’s visit, the outbreak of coronavirus had not started to spread around the world and, with the permission of the Bangladeshi authorities, they were able to see for themselves the humanitarian work being done in the camp by Christian Aid and its local partners.

Dr Paluch said that in 2017, when an estimated 655,000 Rohingya fled across the border to escape fighting and persecution in Myanmar, the commission donated funds to both the Disasters Emergency Committee and the CAID Crisis Appeal to assist with the relief effort.

The camp now houses a million people and is the most densely populated refugee camp in the world.

‘We had seen pictures of the camp many times before on TV, but nothing can fully prepare you for the sheer size and scale of it when you see it for real,’ Dr Paluch said.

‘It literally stretches as far as the eye can see and is subdivided into 34 separately managed sites, each administered by a different NGO, but with the host Bangladeshi government in overall charge.’

The couple visited the Jamtoli and Hakimpara Camp, where more than 100,000 people live in an area of less than one square mile. They were impressed with how much has been achieved in just over two years.

‘The aid from Guernsey was initially spent on items such as blankets, tents and shelter kits, but it has gone on to provide 55 latrines – serving at least 20 people each – and five deep tube wells, which supply clean water,’ Dr Paluch said.

‘It has also helped to establish two emergency health posts where we spent time with the very dedicated team of local doctors and health care workers. Although the medical facilities are still very basic, and the supply of medicines very limited, we discussed with them how things could be improved in the future and what they already needed to keep up with the steadily increasing demand.’

About 60,000 babies are born in the camp each year, roughly equal to the population of Guernsey, and the birth rate alone accounts for a rise in the refugee population of 150,000 since 2017.

The hilly landscape means that there is a risk of landslides during the rainy season.

Dr and Mrs Paluch were shown the work that is being done to install proper drainage and pathways around the camp.

‘Those construction projects employ labour from within the camp and provide a source of much-needed income,’ Dr Paluch said.

‘We also visited the handicraft training centres, which double up as safe spaces for the many traumatised women, the early learning and child care facilities and the homestead vegetable gardens.’

With so many people living closely together in flimsy overcrowded tarpaulin shelters it is very difficult for infectious diseases to be controlled once they get into the camp. The camp is now in lockdown to try to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

‘Whilst we were there the health workers were trying to get all the children vaccinated to prevent an outbreak of measles, but they are now bracing themselves for an almost inevitable outbreak of coronavirus within the camp,’ Dr Paluch said.

‘When it arrives, social distancing will be impossible and with clean water and soap in short supply, let alone masks and intensive care facilities, the virus will spread rapidly. The death toll is likely to be extremely high.’

n Anyone able to make a donation to the cause can make an online payment to Mrs C. Paluch, sort code 60-09-20 and account number 74218158, with reference refugee camp.