Every action counts

We are living in unprecedented times. The Covid-19 pandemic has spread like wildfire around the world, consuming lives, shattering livelihoods and changing the ways we live in profound and possibly lasting ways. We are in the fight of our lives and, at the same time, another human tragedy continues to smoulder and burn: the global displacement crisis.

Today is World Refugee Day, when we celebrate the resilience, tenacity and human dignity of refugees, asylum seekers and other forcibly displaced people. Every day, they show their will to face danger, overcome adversity and rebuild their lives. Place yourself for one moment in their shoes. Imagine how you would want others to see and treat you. Anyone can become a refugee.

Each year on World Refugee Day, a key report known as the UNHCR Global Trends in Forced Displacement is released. Every year for nearly a decade, UNHCR has announced that the number of forcibly displaced people has hit a new record high. We have also reported that lasting solutions remain elusive.

At the end of 2019, some 79.5 million people were displaced worldwide. This means that more than one in every hundred people in the world is a refugee, internally displaced person or is otherwise forcibly displaced. Behind this enormous figure are people—individuals and families. They are young people with dreams and older people who deserve better in their later years.

On World Refugee Day, UNHCR remembers with gratitude the humanity and compassion of the People of Bangladesh who received hundreds of thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees who fled across the border from Myanmar in August 2017. This was the largest and swiftest movement of refugees in Asia since the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

The Rohingya refugees have also not forgotten. Bangladesh offered them safety and shelter when they needed it most. Many people—both Government officials and ordinary people—have told me how they dropped everything and went to Cox's Bazar to respond to the unfolding human tragedy.

These Bangladeshi "first responders" also included the poorest of the poor in the rural areas where the refugees arrived, who opened their homes and shared what little food they had. These true heroes will remain a bright point of light in the history of Bangladesh and humanity. They are the living embodiment of this year's World Refugee Day theme: "everyone can make a difference, every action counts."

Nearly three years on, the Rohingya refugees are facing a new crisis—one they share with everyone in the country. The Covid-19 pandemic is a viral cyclone that has now made landfall in Bangladesh. The virus is a great equaliser. It does not ask to see your passport or to know your status. Everyone is at risk, Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees alike, as well as aid workers who have come to help.

Decisive action by the Government of Bangladesh restricting the humanitarian response to critical activities only and limiting contact between people inside and outside of the refugee camps delayed the arrival and slowed the spread of the Covid-19 virus. We used this window of opportunity to prepare as much as possible, heeding the advice of Rabindranath Tagore that, "You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

Preparations for the Covid-19 continue at full speed, but the time for action has now come. Yesterday, the Civil Surgeon reported 1,852 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Cox's Bazar district, including 43 Rohingya refugees. These statistics are based on testing results. The actual number of persons infected is certainly higher, and each day brings reports of new cases in the camps and the surrounding Bangladeshi communities.

Even as we mark World Refugee Day, United Nations and NGO workers are on the job, working alongside government partners. For weeks, we have been in a race against time to strengthen the district's public healthcare facilities and build new isolation and treatment centres for Covid-19 patients—Bangladeshis and Rohingya alike.

For the Rohingya refugees to continue to shelter in the camps, critical humanitarian activities must continue. Frontline humanitarian workers—although in dramatically reduced numbers—are delivering lifesaving health and nutrition programmes, ensuring the distribution of food, fuel, soap and hygiene supplies.

Rohingya refugees are at the centre of efforts to support their own community. Refugee volunteers—thousands of them—work hard every day to ensure that people know how to protect themselves and their families against Covid-19 infection and what to do if they become ill. They play important roles in healthcare, sanitation and community mobilisation programmes.

We are facing the challenge of a lifetime in Bangladesh. I have been moved to see how the Rohingya refugees and local Bangladeshis have stepped forward to care for their communities. I am also inspired by the humanitarian commitment of government, UN and NGO partners and my own UNHCR team, who put their own health at risk each day so that others might pass safely through this tempest, reach the other side and have a future.

As we rise to meet the challenges of Covid-19, we cannot forget that no one should be a refugee forever. We have recently seen what happens when refugees lose hope and turn to dangerous, and for some deadly, journeys by sea in search of a better life.

Since the day that I arrived in Bangladesh, the Rohingya refugees have sent me a clear message, "We want to go home to Myanmar." With equal strength, though, they say they want their children to live free from violence and have the most basic human rights, including freedom of movement, and have a pathway to citizenship.

An important first step would be for all to heed the United Nations Secretary General's call for "an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world," including in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Peace with justice must follow, so that Rohingya refugees can go home again voluntarily in safety and dignity and also sustainably, so that they are never again forced to flee.

Let this be not only our wish for them but also our commitment to them and to all forcibly displaced people on this World Refugee Day.

Steven Corliss is Representative of UNHCR in Bangladesh.