The UNHCR High Commissioner issued key protection messages on 31 March 2020 in which he advocated, inter alia, for access to asylum while also protecting public health, continued reception of asylum seekers and the processing of asylum claims and inclusion of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and other marginalized groups in public health.

Nearly all countries have COVID-19 cases, including a small number of cases among persons of concern (PoC) to UNHCR but with no concentrated outbreak so far.

UNHCR and partner organizations have further intensified their COVID-19 response in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, following the first confirmed case of coronavirus among the refugee population.

Echoing the UN-wide call for action on 13 May, UNHCR continues to appeal for urgent support to ensure the availability and continuation of mental health and psychosocial services for refugees and those displaced. These services must be considered “essential” services and form part of national responses to COVID-19. [Source: UNHCR Global COVID-19 Situation Report]

UNHCR and WHO signed a new agreement to strengthen and advance public health services for the millions of forcibly displaced people around the world.

UNHCR is active around the world to provide mental health and psychosocial support during COVID-19. In Bangladesh, UNHCR has trained 43 national psychologists by using inter-agency guidance. The psychologists subsequently trained over 500 community psychosocial volunteers, para counsellors and community health workers in the promotion of healthy coping and maintaining psychosocial wellbeing.

In a press release, UNHCR welcomed Canada’s announcement to open pathways to permanent residency for asylum-seekers in the healthcare sector who have worked on the frontlines of the country’s COVID-19 response.

In a press release, UNHCR alerted that more than three quarters of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum-seekers in Costa Rica are going hungry, eating only once or twice a day as a result of the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, highlighted that maintaining levels of humanitarian aid is a comparatively inexpensive way to save lives and protect refugees and their host communities facing a “pandemic of poverty” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press release UNHCR warns that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving further violence against refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls. The UNHCR-led Global Protection Cluster reported increases in gender-based violence in at least 27 countries. UNHCR is also alarmed by increased risks of child and forced marriages being resorted to as a coping strategy by displaced families buckling under socio-economic pressures.