The migrant population and institutions working on their behalf report the challenges that the disease has caused
At the beginning of April 2020, UN Secretary General António Guterres said that the new Coronavirus crisis would be the biggest test for humanity since the Second World War. With this warning sounded, non-governmental organizations, human rights defenders and governments are racing against time to find solutions and actions to minimize the impact on society.
Scientists around the world are focused on finding an efficient vaccine to fight the virus, and the most effective preventative measure is social isolation accompanied by care and attention to personal hygiene. These conditions, which prevent and mitigate the transmission of the disease, prove impractical in refugee camps around the world, where health and hygiene conditions are precarious and overcrowding makes social isolation impossible. And for migrants and refugees from all over the world, border closures and restrictions on movement increase the risks to their vulnerable situation
There are currently more than 200,000 asylum seekers in Brazil, and this population is entitled to emergency aid from the federal government. However, encountered difficulties at the start of the process. The lack of a regularized CPF (Proof of Natural Person) is an impediment to accessing the resource. All migratory processes such as recognition of refuge, family reunion and naturalization are suspended, and migrants who are in Brazil are finding it even more difficult to regularize their documents.
Around the world, people in situations of mobility already face difficulties in accessing accurate information due to factors such as language and xenophobia, but the efforts of some organizations that offer virtual booklets in the languages of migrants, with information on preventing Covid-19, are attempts to help at this time. In addition to concerns about access to aid services, there is also the fear of being treated differently, which often hinders access to medical care.
An internally displaced woman washes her hands before receiving assistance in Kigonze, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: UNHCR
In Ressano Garcia, Maputo - the border between Mozambique and South Africa, 23,000 Mozambicans have already returned to the country due to the closure of work activities in South Africa to contain the pandemic. Around the world, many migrants and refugees find themselves in unhealthy housing situations, living in squats or on the streets, while the NGOs that used to receive and help these people have suspended their physical activities and are looking for donations of food and hygiene products to take to these people.
Migrant women and covid-19 in Europe
A large proportion of migrant women in Europe work in the care sector looking after the elderly, the people most affected by the pandemic. According to data from the Spanish government, in 2005, 53.6 percent of the total number of people employed in domestic and care work were migrants, of whom 27 percent were caring for the elderly, most of them migrant women. Of the total number of people who have died in Spanish hospitals because of the Coronavirus, 86.1 percent are over the age of 70, according to the Spanish Ministry of Health.
According to Susana Martinez and Carolina Calvo, professors at the University of Brasilia (UnB). MOBILANG who works with migrants and refugees, the circumstances of these women before the epidemic were already vulnerable (low wages, informal jobs, long working hours and unregulated migratory status), and that the current situation is worrying.
The professors warn that this high mortality rate among the elderly population will lead to migrant workers losing their jobs, and it is also possible that they are facing pressure, "not only from their families [employers], but also from the very meaning of what they are doing". duty" to continue their work in unsuitable situations, which exposes them to the virus.
Shelters for migrants and refugees
Several organizations that work directly with migrants and refugees have had to adapt to the new recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) when providing care.
Every year, the Mother Assunta Institute in Tijuana, Mexico, run by the Scalabrinian Sisters, houses many migrant women and children who arrive at the US border. With the pandemic, the Institute has been forced not to take in new residents; the women who arrive are sent to the Mexican federal government's shelter. The aim is to preserve the health of those sheltered at the Institute and prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus.
The Scalabrinian Fathers' Casa del Migrante in Tijuana has also closed its doors and only houses the maximum allowed by the local government - 50 people. As the US deports more people to the city, with the aim of emptying US detention centers, organizations are seeking better action from the Mexican government to protect the health of those arriving forcibly, as well as that of the teams working with this population.
Terezinha Mezzalira, a Scalabrinian Sister who works in Foz do Iguaçu, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, reports that Paraguayan and local families are welcoming the arriving migrants as much as possible, but there are still families camped out. Paraguayans who try to return to their country are being prevented, many arriving at the border from other parts of Brazil trying to get home. Fortunately, according to Sister, the municipality, organizations and the Church are united in acting on behalf of the migrants.
In the photo, volunteers from Cáritas and Fraternidade o Caminho prepare lunches for the migrants stranded in Foz do Iguaçu, PR.
In South Africa, a country facing lockdown Since March 27, Sister Marivane Chiesa, a Scalabrinian and director of the Bienvenu hostel, which receives refugee women and their children, reports that the institution has been in isolation since March 18. The residents are not allowed to leave the premises except in emergencies, in compliance with the local decree. The institution, which has equipment to train female refugees in dressmaking, is now making masks for staff, volunteers and residents. Sanitary protection measures are being strictly adopted, with daily reports on procedures.
"What worries us is the emergency shelter. There are many migrant and refugee women who, forced by the situation around us, hunger and despair, knock on our door and we can't take them in because of the precautionary situation. And emergency food programs for the people affected in the neighborhoods around the Bienvenu Shelter, mostly women who were our residents [were also affected]. There are many people who are vulnerable and at risk." - Sr. Marivane Chiesa, MSCS
How to help
Check out the contacts of the institutions mentioned in this article, and of other institutions working with migrants and refugees at this time of pandemic.
- Instituto Madre Assunta, a hostel for migrant women and children in Tijuana, Mexico. Contact: +52 664 683 0575.
- CAMI - Migrant Support Center São Paulo (SP). Contact: contato@cami.org.br; +55 (11) 9672-94238.
- CAM - Migrant Assistance Center Caxias do Sul (RS). Contact: cam@aesc.org.br; +55 (54) 3027-3360.
- SPM - Serviço Pastoral Migrante Conde (PB) and Florianópolis (SC): spmnecasadomigrante@gmail.com
Luana G. Silveira and Igor B. Cunha
CSEM Communications Team
English
Portuguese 
Italian 
Spanish