Letter of solidarity for refugees

The global scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, being borderless, raceless and classless shall be a reminder of our common humanity and sense of solidarity. It is also a brutal reminder that you, more than ever, deserve specific and compassionate protection.

However, the COVID-19 response has revealed an architecture of pre-existing, systematic inequalities and inequities, leaving the most vulnerable communities with a despicable lack of available protections and resources. behind. 

In this regard, the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that social distancing is a luxury. Now more than ever, this letter condemns the international legal structures that have given rise to the conditions that have prevented you from accessing your right to safe and healthy living conditions. This letter recognizes that it is not possible to social distance when you have nowhere to go. This is unacceptable.

Drawing on lessons from your plural and intersectional experiences as inspiration, this letter is for you, regardless of your faith, your nationality, your gender, your race, your colour, your age and your class; also, whether encamped or otherwise. It seeks to give full effect to the objectives set out in the UN charter, guaranteeing fundamental rights without discrimination to every human being.

Now is the time to ask policymakers, how can you flee persecution if the closest border has been closed? How are you supposed to wash your hands when you don’t necessarily have access to clean water? How can you isolate yourself if you live in a crowded camp?

How can you survive during this lockdown without life-saving commodities? How can you seek protection against sexual and gender-based violence if you live under the same roof as your abuser? How can you provide for your families if you can’t go to work? 

Admittedly, we are outraged by the heartbreaking impact that COVID-19, with its subsequent measures such as lockdowns, border closures, the grounding of flights, and many others have had on refugees across the globe.

We, authors of this letter, applaud those of you who have bravely stepped forward to provide services as frontline workers and activists amidst the pandemic. We, authors of this letter, applaud those of you who have bravely stepped forward to provide services as frontline workers and activists amidst the pandemic.

In Uganda, for example, Young African Refugees for Integrated Development (YARID), a refugee-led organization has so far reached out to over 200 refugee households in Kampala. YARID has distributed rations of maize flour, beans, sugar and cooking oil. In another initiative, the Refugee Entrepreneurship Association led an advocacy campaign to generate funding and awareness about the health crisis by recording videos translated in local languages in Uganda. 

Similarly, we applaud the efforts of many Rohingya refugees who took the lead by producing masks in Bangladesh, in Cox’s Bazar district.

Additionally, the value of sisterhood is more meaningful than ever in Smara refugee camp, Algeria where women work together to distribute food and sanitary products. Moreover, queer refugees-led organizations such as Arcoiris International Center in the United States have assisted South-American refugees to access basic services such as unemployment benefits. 

In addition, refugee counsellors in Malaysia are actively supporting their communities, providing survivors of gender-based violence with a safe space to tell their stories and by accommodating the mental health needs of the Rohingya community.

In Lebanese refugee camps, educational resources have been circulated by families to support children. Meanwhile, in Germany, Saxony’s regional medical board advertised a call for doctors of all medical backgrounds to fill an anticipated shortage of medical staff battling the pandemic. The call was open to all including, migrants and refugees. Furthermore, in France, doctors from Libya and Somalia have joined the battle to fight COVID-19 and save lives. 

Again, we acknowledge and applaud these efforts. This letter draws on these initiatives as examples of empowerment and inspiration. The world needs to understand that you are peoples and individuals who are resilient and who are entitled to full personhood just like any other human being living on this earth. We are thus calling for a shift in this harmful vulnerability narrative to one of power, ownership and agency. 

Furthermore, it appears that this pandemic has contributed to the silencing that was already prevalent in yesterday’s world regarding your plight. We decide not to be accomplices of this silence. We, writers of this letter, are not refugees, nor are we asylum seekers, nor internally displaced persons. We are researchers who wish to dedicate these words and our work to you. We do not claim to have all answers to your concerns, but, we take this opportunity to acknowledge your vicissitude and to honour your resilience. 

Although the ignorance towards the rights guaranteed to refugees is slowly being given redress within institutions and governments, you are the ones truly establishing transformative change. You might have been forcibly rendered invisible, but you were never voiceless. Coming from all walks of life, you have the power to demand that your rights be taken seriously. You have a voice. We are committing to amplify it. 

Together, let’s make your realities known to policymakers and legislators. Let’s claim this due protection. It is time for your stories to be heard!

Silence is violence and we will not be part of it. 

Warmest wishes of love, bravery and solidarity.  

From: Labila Sumayah Musoke (East African public interest lawyer) and Maëlle Noir (PhD student, National University of Ireland, Galway)