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Órla Ryan reports from Lebanon
CONCERNS HAVE BEEN raised about the impact Covid-19 could have on refugees in Lebanon if the virus starts to spread in refugee camps or informal settlements.
Conditions in the camps – typically home to a mix of Palestinians and Syrians as well as migrant workers and vulnerable Lebanese people – and the informal tented settlements (ITS) – primarily home to Syrian refugees – are generally quite poor with several people often living in the same room or tent.
More than 60 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Lebanon to date, and two deaths.
As of yesterday, a nationwide closure of all schools and universities has been extended until at least the end of this month. Public gatherings have been banned and travel restrictions to and from countries experiencing outbreaks of the virus are in place.
Many businesses such as bars, restaurants and cinemas have also closed as a precaution – another blow to a country experiencing a severe economic recession.
Self-isolation, which is recommended for 14 days if a person has travelled to an area where there is an outbreak or come into close contact with a person with the virus, is essentially impossible for people living in camps or ITS.
Declan Barry, Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) Medical Director for Lebanon, said the idea of self-isolation in a camp or ITS is “nonsense”.
“The idea of isolation, you know, quarantining yourself in your home and not being around people for two weeks, if you were in contact with somebody who had it, what does that look like in an ITS or in one of the camps? It’s just nonsense,” the Longford native told TheJournal.ie.
MSF is among the NGOs giving practical advice to people living in camps in Lebanon, such as regularly washing their hands and surfaces, and opening windows or tents where possible.
“Once it does take hold in an overcrowded space, it’s going to be a tough one,” Barry noted.
Assem Chreif, Director of the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Technology (LOST), said that if Covid-19 cases are confirmed in ITS the results could be disastrous.
Speaking at LOST’s centre in Bednayel in Bekaa, an area where a large number of Syrian refugees live in ITS, Chreif told us: “Everybody knows that if the virus is spread among Syrian refugees it would be disastrous because nobody can manage their movements, they can’t contact everybody.
“When you see them living in close proximity like that – all of these tents are open and everybody meets everybody on a regular basis so you cannot control the spread of the virus.”
Showering twice a day
Aymon* (45) has been living with his wife, seven children and extended family in an ITS in Ghazze in west Bekaa, Ghazze, about 60km from Damascus, for seven years.
He and his family fled Hama in Syria in 2013 after his cousin was killed by a bomb. Aymon said he is “very worried” his children will get sick from Covid-19, noting that two of them have asthma and another has allergies.
“Now with the coronavirus, I’m being very cautious – my kids shower twice a day, they keep washing their hands, we’re washing our hands all the time.
“I’m afraid that if one person catches coronavirus, it will easily spread,” he told us.
It’s very difficult to know the exact number of Syrian refugees living in Bekaa, but it’s estimated to be between 350,000 and 400,000 people. The ITS vary widely in size – anything from five tents to over 100, with at least one family in each tent.
Many ITS have reliable access to water, but others do not. LOST, for example, works with Unicef to regularly deliver water and soap to residents and will be stepping up efforts given the Covid-19 crisis.
Chreif said a refugee could spread the virus to a person living in the host community or vice versa, noting: “The best course of action now is to segregate them, at least for the time being.”
LOST has for years helped to run hygiene promotion committees within ITS, and is using these people to disseminate practical advice to refugees about how to best protect themselves and their families.
While many of its operations are ongoing, LOST has had to cancel the educational and training courses it runs for young people aged 10-18 years until at least next month as these classes fall under the nationwide school closure.
Access to testing
Speaking to TheJournal.ie in Beirut, Barry said another concern is the fact refugees and other vulnerable people often don’t have access to healthcare and many of them will not have access to Covid-19 testing.
There is a concern that the measures that would be used to contain this are not particularly practical for the living conditions that so many people are living in.
“And also then if people [in camps and settlements] do get symptoms and they need to get tested, will they be able to access the services?”
Barry said a lot of MSF’s focus to date has been on infection prevention and control, and making sure staff and service users have reliable information. The organisation is monitoring the situation and discussing ways it can adapt if and when the virus becomes more widespread or is detected in a camp or ITS.
“Some of our operations are so big we couldn’t really close them down for two weeks, that would not be effective. So we’re looking at how we would maintain our activities in a way that would not put our patients who come to us at risk and not put our staff at risk,” he stated.
Similar camps and settlements to those in Lebanon are, of course, present in many other countries.
The World Health Organization, which yesterday officially declared that Covid-19 a pandemic, had at the time of publication not responded to a request for comment about the concerns surrounding self-isolation and access to testing among refugees. Its general guidelines about the virus can be read here.
‘This won’t kill me’
Employees at MSF’s family clinic in Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Beirut – where it’s estimated up to 45,000 people live, mainly Palestinians – said some patients are bringing up Covid-19 but many are not as they have more pressing needs such as struggling to get food.
However, some pregnant women who are referred by MSF to Rafik Hariri University Hospital because they require more specialised care have raised concerns about going there.
“They don’t want to go to the birth centre, it’s in Rafik Hariri grounds and that’s where the corona patients are being treated,” Dr Laura Rinchey, who works in the clinic, explained.
She added that staff members are reassuring these women about attending the hospital, noting that all patients with Covid-19 are being treated in a separate area to other patients.
Mohammad Sunallah, the clinic’s manager, said not that many patients are bringing up Covid-19 as they have more pressing day-to-day challenges.
“The population here, I think they have enough things to think about more than the coronavirus.
“They are still struggling with their daily life and things they are facing. And even if they discuss it, they discuss it in a sarcastic way, ‘After what we passed, all this history, the corona is not the one that will lead me to death.’ They have a lot of things to think about more than the coronavirus,” Sunallah said.
*Aymon’s name has been changed to protect his identity.
This article is supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund. In the coming weeks, Órla Ryan will report on the reality of life in refugee camps and informal settlements in Lebanon, and the health and mental health supports available to refugees.
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Half of the above are charlatans. Only Grudgiev, Lyons, McWilliams & Maynooth Prof are credible.
Tis all guessonomics!
We didn’t need the first one.
Shove it!!!
Mcwilliams? Seriously? If he was so certain of our collapse maybe he would have spent more time discussing that than his new catchphrase. Seriously go back and check what he spent his days talking about before the crash. F*cking ‘deckchair families ‘ sweatpants mummies’ and waynes world generations. He, compared to the torrent of paper space he commanded, barely talked about a potential crash.
The real question is, if he actually considers himself a reputable economist why did he not spend most of his time talking about the collapse of millions of Irish livelihoods? He was the only popular economist in the country! He either was guessing or didn’t care. Literally the only two possibilities.
Lyons hits it on the head:
“If you don’t want to be answerable in your public spending to anyone other than your citizens then balance your books and you won’t have to borrow.”
Everybody likes the sound of having the books balanced. But it would require “austerity” on a grand scale so no thanks. We´ll just keep borrowing and borrowing in the hopes that the guy we´re borrowing from will forget about the money.
Colm mccarthys comments are brainless… Noone can predict the future.
Rich coming from a man who has trousered a fortune from the taxpayer doing just that!
Mr Noone can predict the future!
What are you talking about? He did that job for a fiver… if the government went to an accountancy or a consultancy firm they would have been charged millions, Colm did it for a few thousand.
And that is a fair amount considering his expertise. If anything was brainless it was your comment.
Everyday it just seems to go from bad to worse. There just seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, we are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul & its getting us nowhere. The country is on its knees.
I agree with Michael o leary. Hoping for a second bailout so that the imf will force the government to cut themselves because they are not gonna do it of their own accord.
Whether or not Ireland will need another bailout will depend on the state of the bond markets. We are doing all the right things to get our public finances in order and we are not going to default on existing bonds so re-entry into the bond maret will depend on others.
Personally I think we will remain in bailout until the Euro and the other debtor countries have sorted themselves out.
I’m not so sure about that Peter.
The recent McKinsey report (detailed in many of the papers yesterday) makes for eye-watering reading from an Irish perspective. Our total debt (public, private, household, etc) is at more than 6.5 times national income. More than twice the nearest delinquent Spain.
Total Irish debt is inflated by the Financial Institutions balances at 294% of GDP. This is influenced by the number of foreign institutions operating in the IFSC. Soveriegn debt at 85% of GDP is a concern as is household debt at 124%. Non financial corporate debt at 194% would be a worry but again I think this is artificially high reflecting stategic leveraging by the high number of FDI corporates in Ireland, particularly from the US.
It is difficult to choose another economy to measure ourselves against because of our ability to attract foreign direct investment across a number of business sectors. I would suggest that the nearest model to our own is the UK.
Peter it is not just the financial sector. The households and the corporate sector are up to the eyeballs too and much above the average of developed countries and above even the usual debtors UK and US.
The government says it is not going to happen……… So it is a given .
“SIPTU economist”. Ha.
Perhaps media outlets such as yourselves should begin posting something positive and instill some confidence, rather than continuously churning out crap like this! Every economist on your list has said the same thing!
Everyone except Gurdgiev and McWilliams are deluded. ‘Talk of the bailout is unhelpful’ – what is this? Is this an opinion of a university head of economics department??
Enough of the gloom get on with it, listening to these economists for too long now. People need to buckle down & make things happen for themselves & please stop thinking the government are going to do something for you do it yourself.
And the comment of Paul Sweeney of ICTU that the question is hypothetical is utter rubbish. If Ireland was about to be leveled by a giant meteorite the question would have been hypothetical but because it isn’t the question is fairly relevant and real. That is except maybe for ICTU beards who according to Sweeney’s own admission have ‘other things to worry about’ (i.e. how to keep the Croke Park zombie alive and pull a quick one in front of the general public pretending some progress is being made).
Government policies are killing growth. When the retail figures are out on this quarter, the reality will be laid bare. Job losses will roll on this year unfortunately. Tax revenue is shrinking and that has been the case for several years even after all the levies, band adjustments, etc. To keep the Croke Farce Agreement going, increasing amounts of shrinking tax revenue are needed. Eventually, the Farce must be closed down if the deficit is to be brought under control. The present trajectory leads inevitably to a second bailout. Few public sector economists will admit that openly, as it opens up uncomfortable questions about wage levels among the academic and teaching elites when businesses are struggling to keep their premises heated.
I’ve spoken to many in the retail sector over the past few days and the last few weeks have definetly been the worst that any of them have experienced in 30+ years of trading.
My comment is this: I would like to quote Walter Ulbricht, the East German head of State, commenting at a 1961 press conference when asked about his stance as to an East west border: “Nobody here intends to build a wall.” Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjgKKOdVRx4
“It is ludicrous to say that Ireland will need a second bailout.” Will you believe it still after watching that?
A No vote will sort it all out one way or the other. Then there won’t be a cent left to pay the most senior guaranteed bondholder and Croke Park will be hit by an ICBM.
In the end you have to take the bottle away from the alcoholic!
It largely depends on factors outside of our control. We are doing everything that is being asked of us and meeting our targets but political inaction in the EU is putting all of that at risk.
If we do have to go the the EFSF for a further round of funding it would not be a total disaster. We would be getting money at less than normal market rates and would only require assisted funding for a year or two.
We are missing growth forecasts, tax intake is below the forecasts (masked to an extent with ‘once-off’ measures like the pension raid), the deficit is still a double XXL whopper with cheese, the only sector with some growth potential (export industry) is about to be fucked with another global crisis and the unemployment is stuck near 15%. What particular targets are being met??? I am afraid you are buying the government’s spin. Their statements on the subject are the work of pure fiction. Anybody who thinks Greece is an exception is deluded. Portugal is next and then Ireland. There is no such thing as ‘one cockroach’.
Looking at the response from McWilliams I realised that his comments to the Journal were made earlier this month and on this basis I wonder when the other interviews took place. Forecasting in economic terms requires a set of facts and a common set of assumptions. Could the author of this place validate the timing of the economists contributions to avoid the piece being meaningless.
Mark,
Apologies for the delay in responding to your query. Bar McWilliams, the interviews for this piece all took place within the last 7 days.
Hugh
Comments from such a group could never be conclusive, economics is one part, politics is another macroeconomics is another and microeconomics is finally where it hurts in the pocket . I wouldn’t bet on anything they say.none of them ever saw the downturn coming including Mc Williams who saw everything down turning, as always he had to be right sometime why didn’t he profit from it.
have your say