Covid-19 ups vulnerability for displaced people in Iraqi camps

Baghdad, Dec 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) The raging coronavirus pandemic has raised vulnerability levels among the Internal Displaced People (IDP) in Iraq as fewer aid agencies are engaged to help contain the contagious virus in camps.

Strict restrictions were put in place on residents in IDP camps from March to September to prevent Covid-19 infections, Xinhua news agency said in a report on Sunday.

Now as temperatures were plummeting to below zero degree Celsius, the pandemic is overlapping the flu season, creating an alarming situation for displaced families living in tents.

On an average day, the primary health facility at the Hasansham U3 Camp in Nineveh province receives 70 to 130 people with various health complaints.

The number of those seeking help for respiratory diseases, including flu, tops the list.

"There is a lot of crowding here, so the coronavirus will spread easier in the camp," Ali Ibrahim Hasan, a general practitioner who has worked in the camp since 2016, told Xinhua.

"Cases of Covid-19 need more care, including admissions. We don't have the facilities to manage."

Ali said some 25 suspected coronavirus cases and five severe ones were reported in the camp, adding that residents have no access to Covid-19 tests to confirm suspected cases.

"Luckily, we don't have cases at this moment. If there are more than five cases, we cannot manage from here. We should send them to Erbil or Mosul," he said.

Three years after Iraqi forces defeated the extremist Islamic State terror group, 1.2 million people remain displaced across Iraq.

"Usually we have shortages of medicines and supplies," Ali said, because aid agencies are more focused on refugees instead of the displaced in Iraq.

Currently, the displaced families in Hasansham Camp regularly receive food rations and cash distribution from the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

In addition, Barzani Charity Foundation, the camp management, has distributed masks and hygiene kits to the vulnerable group in the fight against the virus.

Camp management said that is not enough, warning that the displaced need more assistance than ever to satisfy their food, health and education needs since the pandemic has deepened the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

"Our staff works tirelessly to provide food assistance in camp settings," said Asif Bhutto, WFP deputy representative in Iraq.

But he noted that the pandemic has had a big impact on millions of people in Iraq's food-insecure population.

Source: IANS