With the interruption of reception programs, the suspension of asylum procedures and quarantine confinements, migrants in Europe are more vulnerable than ever in the face of the new coronavirus pandemic.
An example of this was experienced first-hand by Syrian Mahmud Ajluni, when he went to an administration office in Berlin on Thursday to obtain his new housing permit and found the offices closed.
"I got a call," explains this young man who has been a refugee in Germany for five years and whose only identity document is a provisional certificate.
- Interviews suspended -
When will he be able to recover the precious document? "I have no idea, I have no information," he said worriedly.
In Germany, where 1.3 million asylum seekers and migrants live, public services for them are almost at a standstill.
Some interviews, key elements in these asylum processes, have been suspended, according to the Interior Ministry.
The authorities have also delimited the situations in which asylum applications can be made. They can only be made if the applicant tests negative for COVID-19 or after a 14-day quarantine period.
Germany has also halted its humanitarian refugee programs from Turkey and Lebanon, even though it had pledged to take in 5,500 people this year, most of them Syrians.
At a general level, the pandemic has put the asylum system in check throughout Europe, as the European Union has closed its external borders for 30 days.
In this context, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned that asylum seekers must not be left without shelter or forced to return.
In Germany, several cases of contagion in refugees have forced the authorities to impose quarantine measures in reception centers for migrants.
- Clashes -
In some of these centers, such as Suhl in the east of the country, where 533 migrants are being quarantined, the situation has led to clashes. 200 police officers had to be sent as reinforcements and 22 people were transferred to a former youth prison.
Volunteers and NGOs warn that these vulnerable populations are left to fend for themselves. How can they keep their distance in tiny rooms and sharing bathrooms and kitchens?
"The children keep running in the corridors," explains Sophia, a volunteer who looks after several Afghan families in a center in the northeast of Berlin.
"There's hand sanitizer at the entrance, but nothing else," adds this woman, who regrets that visits to these establishments are now banned.
- "Disaster" -
In France, because of lockdown measures and the fear of infection, there are fewer and fewer volunteers in Calais (in the north), where there are around 2,000 migrants, and there are no more food distributions.
"If the virus spreads to a refugee camp, it will be a disaster," warns Antoine Nehr of the NGO Utopia 56.
In Greece, where tens of thousands of people are living in camps and there are no basic hygiene facilities, there could be a humanitarian "catastrophe", according to a German Green MEP, Erik Marquardt.
"If people are not evacuated from the islands, there will be a catastrophe in the medium term," he said by telephone from the island of Lesbos.
The German NGO Pro Asyl called for "European solidarity" to take in the migrants stranded on the Greek islands, including "more than 10,000 minors".
In this regard, Berlin reaffirmed its commitment to take care of some of the 1,600 children the EU wants to remove from the camps.
Athens, for its part, has imposed restrictions on the movement of migrants in the Aegean islands.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has also launched an information campaign about the virus. However, according to the MEP, "there's not much point in handing out leaflets with hygiene tips (...) if people can't keep their distance because they sleep on top of each other in tents".