UNHCR urges for stronger COVAX support for refugees including Rohingyas

UN Refugee Agency has urged immediate and stronger support for the COVAX initiative for the refugees and asylum seekers, including the Rohingyas in Bangladesh and the Asia-Pacific as Covid-19 is raging in many parts of the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia.

In a statement, it warned about shortages of vaccines and urged immediate support for the COVAX initiative, a worldwide effort aimed at achieving equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.

"This is critical to save lives and curb the impact of the virus, particularly in developing nations. These countries host the vast majority of more than 80 million forcibly displaced people in the world. Yet so far, they have benefited from only a fraction of the world's Covid-19 vaccines," said the statement.

In Cox's Bazar, where almost 900,000 Rohingya refugees are living in the single largest and densely populated camps, as of 31 May, there have been over 1,188 cases confirmed among the refugee population, with more than half of these cases recorded in May alone.

"We have also seen a worrying increase in the number of Covid-19 cases among refugees and asylum-seekers in Nepal, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. While efforts are underway to mitigate the spread of the virus, these preventive measures need to be complemented with intensified vaccinations," UNHCR said.

Some refugees, including in Nepal, have already received their first vaccine dose with COVAX-provided supplies. Among the Rohingya refugees in the camps in Bangladesh, not a single vaccine has been administered yet given the scarcity of supplies in the country.

UNHCR is calling upon the countries with surplus doses to donate to COVAX, and for manufacturers to boost supplies to the COVAX facility.

"We are particularly worried about the situation in the Asia and Pacific region, which in the past two months has experienced the largest increase in the number of cases globally. Over this period, there have been some 38 million recorded COVID-19 cases and more than half a million deaths."