13 March 2020
"With the Syrian health care system "on its knees," according to the World Health Organization, refugee camps across the region are also facing the potential threat of COVID-19. So far, no cases have been found."
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Coronavirus: How are Middle East refugee camps prepared? (DW, link):
"As Greek authorities expressed fears of a COVID-19 outbreak on islands that house many thousands of asylum-seekers this week, the Turkish ambassador to the US told reporters that trying to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus to camps for displaced people in Syria would be a "mission impossible."
Analysts warned that some of the language around refugees and the global pandemic may be political rhetoric that risks stigmatizing people fleeing war who are at risk. "The danger that people will instrumentalize this topic is there," said Rene Wildangel, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
But, as the refugee issue once again becomes a political football, the fragile circumstances of the roughly 12 million people who have fled the Syrian conflict across Turkey and the Middle East have raised concerns about how well prepared refugee camps in the region are to face the virus."
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