It was a year in which it felt delicate to ask the greeting ‘Are you well?’ Someone could be embarrassed if it was taken as the question ‘Have you caught COVID?’ At the same time, as disaster became part of everyday life, we grew numb to the deaths and suffering of others even as we looked at the statistics on COVID cases.
Ironically, we asked refugees ‘Are you well?’ more often. COVID spread here and there, centered on the workplaces and daycare centers where migrants and refugees work. We had to guide and interpret treatment and isolation methods for confirmed patients and their families. We had to help communication between hospital wards and patients. We also delivered information both to refugees who were anxiously waiting for a vaccine policy for migrants and to refugees who were afraid of getting vaccinated. As in 2020, sending relief supplies to refugee households continued.
Because of all this, the year passed in a blur.
We spoke with refugees almost every day, but it was frustrating that face-to-face counseling and home visits became impossible. Last year we demanded disaster response that included refugees and migrants, but there was no progress at all. To find out properly how they were enduring this disaster, we carried out a research study. It was like fixing the barn after losing the cow. Had we done the survey when we knew that COVID had become a global pandemic and would be hard to overcome in a short time, it would have helped in preparing responses. But even as we finished this survey, COVID was about to spread massively again through new variants. The disaster was continuing.
The results of the research point to the direction MAP should take. We must build a society that embraces refugees who are marginalized and feel severely isolated. We must support refugees so that they can take part in disaster response as residents. This will be difficult without the open hearts and encouragement of citizens. We hope that the wish to live together will overcome COVID and spread.
All members of the Secretariat, Migration to Asia Peace