Keeping Displaced Communities Safe and Healthy As COVID-19 Pandemic Takes Hold

Geneva – The COVID-19 pandemic has compromised the lives and health of millions and challenged the humanitarian community to form new ways of working to keep the people under their care safe and healthy.

In countries where humanitarian responses were already stretched – places hosting tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people displaced by conflict and disasters - movement restrictions imposed to keep the disease at bay inevitably pose issues for humanitarian access.

Sustaining these operations amid the reality of COVID-19 remains a key priority for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Organization joined other humanitarian agencies to call for a greater commitment of funds and support in order to keep staff on the ground, humanitarian corridors open and supply chains expanded.

These measures are not only crucial for mitigating the health and economic impacts of the disease but also ensuring those who currently rely on humanitarian aid can still access food, health care and other services.

Approximately 26 million refugees live in situations of displacement globally. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre recently reported that internal displacement reached an all-time high at the end of 2019 with 50.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) recorded globally.

“Indeed, while much of the world’s population is urged to stay at home – millions of IDPs, forcibly displaced from their homes and habitual residences, live in crowded, unsanitary conditions, in camps, informal settlements or in peri-urban areas, with limited or very poor access to health services,” warned a consortium of global leadership last month on the 22nd anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

“Recommendations to mitigate transmission of COVID-19, including social distancing and isolation measures, therefore remain challenging or even impossible for many IDPs, heightening the risk for COVID-19 to take root and spread among already extremely vulnerable communities,” they add.

IOM has been a lead actor in responding to and driving forward long-term solutions for internally displaced communities for decades. Last year, the Organization supported 2.4 million people – including IDPs but also refugees and asylum seekers – in more than 1,100 displacement sites.