How virus dimmed hopes of refugees in 2020

In August, Haret Abdirahman’s 24-year-old son committed suicide in Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab.

He said his life had no future prospects, despite being a high school leaver.

His father recalls how his son kept talking about how difficult life was at the camp during Covid-19 without a source of income.

“He would often say that he wished he could take his own life, but I never thought he would actually do it,” Abdirahman said.

Experts indicate that the year has seen an upsurge in mental health crises across refugee camps.

For Abdirahman, a fatal mix of pent-up despair, anxiety and fear brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic forced refugees like his son to take extreme measures.

In the Dadaab refugee complex, for instance, where hundreds of thousands of Somalis have been stuck for decades, medical experts have recorded a sudden rise in mental illnesses.

The sentiments are echoed by 30-year-old Fawzia Mohamed who came to Dadaab camp with her family in 1992 when she was barely two years old.

She has lived in the camp since then and laments over the cloud of uncertainty that the pandemic has cast over their lives.

Mohamed says Covid-19 has had a great impact especially on the youth who are hurting both economically and socially.

“The rate of unemployment is very high in the camp, but if the movement restrictions even across countries could be removed, then the living conditions of refugees could really change,” Mohamed said.

As of September, Kenya, which is one of the countries hosting the highest number of refugees in Africa, had 447,141 refugees and 51,218 asylum seekers.

Dadaab in Garissa has 44 per cent of the refugee population, followed by Kakuma and Kalobeyei (40 per cent) and urban centres (16 per cent).

Unlike previous years, the World Food Programme was in 2020 forced to cut food rations by up to 30 per cent.

In August, it voiced fears that the reductions to refugee camps could worsen in the coming months unless urgent additional funding was received in time. 

“Refugees are especially vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19 because they are crowded together in camps with weak or inadequate shelter, health services and access to clean water and sanitation,” Michael Dunford, WFP Eastern Africa regional director, said.

Many other agencies including NGOs also drastically reduced their presence across refugee camps during the year, severely disrupting access to basic services.

Following this, the refugees, especially women, children and the elderly in 2020 were at a high risk of becoming malnourished.

“This can in turn impact their immune systems and increase their risk of being infected by disease, a tragic vicious cycle in the midst of a global pandemic,” the WFP said.

WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said Covid-19 has exacerbated existing humanitarian challenges, particularly with regards to access to health services in many African countries.

“With the pandemic, we have seen some humanitarian operations delayed due to lockdowns, curfews and the restrictions on movement for both personnel and cargo vital for Covid-19 response,” Moeti said.

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) humanitarian agency says such circumstances, along with a lack of gainful employment and an ever-present uncertainty about the future, have created a new mental health crisis.

The UN refugee agency says before the pandemic, many refugees in Dadaab were already frustrated with the lack of progress in finding durable solutions.

“We have been living here for years. How can you stay in a country for three decades but not know where you belong? You remain a refugee without any prospects,”  Mohamed said.

Now, they are faced with the new Covid-19 situation where the meagre humanitarian assistance they depended on has been further reduced amid donor concerns of widening funding gaps.

“We are seeing a groundswell of desperation in the camp,” MSF project coordinator for Dadaab Jeroen Matthys says.

In Dagahaley, the number of attempted suicides has been rising and psychosocial consultations jumped by more than 50 per from last year - from 505 to 766.

Between August and September, five people reportedly attempted suicide in the camp, two with fatal results. More cases have been reported since then.

Humanitarian agencies say that Covid-19 is likely to significantly worsen conditions in the camps as concerns for Dadaab’s refugees risk slipping further down donors’ priorities.

Similarly, the economic shocks of Covid-19 around the world  greatly diminished the remittances the refugees once received from families abroad.

Delayed departures and halted relocation programmes have also seen low refugee resettlement rates this year.

“This is a blow to refugee protection and ability to save the lives of those most at risk,” Gilian Triggs, the UNHCR assistant commissioner for protection, said.

MSF says the after-effects of Covid-19 will likely deal a severe blow across societies and the poor and marginalised Kenyans will not be spared.

“Covid-19 has ended what little chance refugees had of escaping their degrading lives in the camps, compounding the mental distress for many who had nothing left but hope to cling to,” the MSF project coordinator for Dadaab says.

The UN refugee agency now wants the government to prioritise refugees in Covid-19 recovery plans.

It has also called for the protection of female refugees and children currently at the highest risk of malnutrition and violence.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said there is urgent need to shelter refugees, displaced and stateless women and girls especially at this time of Covid-19.

“To preserve lives and secure rights, governments, together with humanitarian actors, must ensure that rising risks of violence for displaced and stateless women are taken into account in the design of national Covid-19 prevention, response and recovery plans,” Triggs said.

Refugees, even those with access to some form of humanitarian assistance, remain extremely vulnerable, and the slightest shock risks upending their lives completely.

“As the Kenyan government draws up Covid-19 recovery plans, integrating refugees would represent a resounding acknowledgement of its commitment to seek a permanent solution for the forgotten refugees of Dadaab,” Dana Krause, MSF Head of Mission, says.

Krause adds that there has never been a more apt moment for donors to also demonstrate international solidarity with refugees, and they must fully share responsibility with the Kenyan government.

“It will be through financial commitments, but also through restoring resettlement and complementary pathways for refugees,” the head of mission says.

Edited by Henry Makori