UNHCR urges stronger support for refugee vaccinations in Asia

Briefing notes

UNHCR urges stronger support for refugee vaccinations in Asia

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

1 June 2021

With COVID-19 raging in many parts of the world, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning about shortages of vaccines in the Asia-Pacific region, including for refugees and asylum-seekers.

We urge immediate and stronger 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.

UNHCR stresses that no one can be left behind in the global effort against the coronavirus. The pandemic will be defeated only when vaccinations become available everywhere on an equitable basis.

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.

The fragile health systems in many countries in this region have struggled to cope with this recent surge. The lack of hospital beds, oxygen supplies, limited intensive care unit (ICU) capacities and scarce health facilities and services have worsened outcomes for those infected with COVID-19, particularly in India and Nepal. The highly infectious variant of the virus which first emerged in India threatens to rapidly spread in the sub-region, including among refugee populations.

Refugees remain especially vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. Overcrowded settings, coupled with limited water and sanitation facilities, can contribute to increased infection rates and an exponential spread of the virus.

In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where almost 900,000 Rohingya refugees are living in the single largest and most densely populated cluster of refugee camps in the world, the number of cases has increased considerably in the last two months. 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.

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.

The current delays in vaccine shipments, brought about by limited supplies to COVAX, mean that some of the world’s most vulnerable people remain susceptible to the virus.

UNHCR is adding its voice to the calls for countries with surplus doses to donate to COVAX, and for manufacturers to boost supplies to the COVAX facility.

UNHCR’s total financial requirements for COVID include $455m in supplementary needs and $469m in COVID-related activities that are included in its regular budget. To date, including projected contributions, UNHCR has received $252.8m or 27% of these requirements.

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