Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (ROHRIngya) CHAPTER ONE | INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people from a wide variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. However, the scale of this impact varies, suggests Athray (2020). Those in lower-income categories, reliant on daily wage labour and from marginalised backgrounds, have faced comparatively worse outcomes. The contagious nature of the disease and the restrictions on movement across various phases of lockdown have severely impacted daily life and activities (Hossain and Islam, 2020). These have ranged from adverse health and mortality outcomes, loss of livelihood and incomes, to restricted access to other forms critical healthcare and significant mental health and psychological impacts. The pandemic and its associated containment measures, particularly lockdowns in several phases, have “exposed pre-existing social inequalities”, whether economic, social, or geographical (Athray, 2020, para.1). Among the most marginalised are those lacking citizenship rights, particularly refugee and asylum-seeking communities (Athrya, 2020). Nearly 80 percent of the world’s forcibly displaced live in developing countries “in the absence of social benefits and poor healthcare facilities”, with this number having steadily increased over the years (Athrya, 2020, para.1). In India, too, the pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to refugee communities (“Refugees in India,” 2021). These communities are rendered more vulnerable to the pandemic due to lack of access to basic facilities and services that citizens are typically provided with. The high density of the population due to cramped living quarters, poor health conditions, and limited health services (Truelove et al. 2020) put refugees at increased risk during any health emergency. Refugees are generally not included in domestic policy and planning, and so are often left out of the crisis response – for instance, in India when refugee groups were initially not included in the vaccination programme. This marginalised status makes it particularly challenging for refugee groups to access necessities and support during times of crisis. The undocumented status of the refugee community also hinders the effective response of host governments and other civil society organisations (Bhagat et al., 2020). Additionally, refugees are often implicated in a complex matrix of socio-cultural ostracism, xenophobic rhetoric, and political expediency. In India, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on January 30, 2020. The Indian government announced a total country-wide lockdown in the third week of March 9