A 25-year-old NGO volunteer, Camp 1W also complained about the social impacts
of the lockdown:
Now,
we can't even attend funerals of our close relatives. The sons or
daughters can't visit their parents. We can't meet friends and relatives now
which we could do before the lockdown. We can't call our relatives from
different camps to have consultations together on marriage or other
important and ritual matters which is like our culture.
A 23-year-old man in Camp 1E explained that people are forced to travel “by foot,
secretly” if they must go to another camp, as roads were closed down due to the
lockdown.
While some of the challenges described above have been felt globally in
connection with the Covid-19 pandemic—such as inability to attend the birth of
grandchildren or prepare proper funerals for the deceased—Rohingya refugees
living in Cox’s Bazar camps are especially hard hit by the severed connections
between families and with relatives abroad. For those living in the camps,
lockdown further deprives them of family networks and support systems that were
already under strain before the pandemic.
(4) Perceptions of medical clinic and hospitals
As they navigate the fear and confusion wrought by the pandemic, camp residents
report trepidation around receiving medical care from camp health clinics in Cox’s
Bazar. The medical personnel of these clinics are staffed entirely by non-Rohingya,
mainly Bangladeshi staff. As noted in the earlier ‘Flash Report’, Rohingya
community members recounted hearing rumors that led them to fear being forcibly
tested for COVID-19 at clinics and then involuntarily placed in isolation away from
their families. As the ‘Flash Report’ further noted, there are even rumors that
patients could be killed, or that the bodies of deceased Covid-19 patients will be
withheld from family members. These rumors compound the mistrust that camp
residents already felt toward health clinics, and fueled community perceptions that
health infrastructure in the camps is weak overall.
A common complaint heard in the camps prior to the pandemic is that clinics “just
provide Paracetamol for every disease.” This perception has continued since the
onset of Covid-19, contributing to generally low expectations of camp residents
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