İZMİR- Üstün Reinart, the director of the Association of Bridging Peoples drew attention to the fact that non of the measures taken against the pandemic includes the refugees.
According to the official data, There are 3,600,000 refugees in the protected status. As 63,000 of the refugees accomodate in camps, over a million of them lives under chaotic, irregular circumstances. The director of the Association of Bridging Peoples Üstün Reinart stand out the problems the refugees have been facing through the pandemic. Stating that refugees made work in unregistered, under-paid jobs and many of them had lost their jobs during the pandemic Reinart told that "Now they grapple with the vital issues of hunger and accomodation. They feel themselves lonely and desperate. We try to reach aid to them as we are not able to go out on the field, but we try to create networks of communication. Of course, these efforts are far than enough."
REFUGEES CAN NOT ACCESS HEALTH SERVICES
Sharing the information that the refugees are forced to pay for the health services and if they are out of job, they are asked for the proof of unemployment, Reinart told that "These circumstances cause the refugees to be shy about going to any hospital during the pandemic. And the refugees, who are employed, try to hide if they suspect that thet are infected in order not to lose their jobs and they do not go to the hospitals."
Reinart also reminded the "Corona Pandemic Report of İzmir Harmandalı Repatriation Center" as he informed that "In the report such claims are stated that there is no regular cleaning in the center and the access to the doctors are limited. It is also stated that the conditions of health, hygene and accomodation constitute a risk. We have no clear information regarding neither the health of the people who are held in here nor how the virus spreads in this place. Such a closed-box. This circumstances indicate how calamitous the scene is."
SOLIDARITY AGAINST HATRED
Reinart called for solidarity against the increasing discourse of hatred sharing his message that "Health being in th first place, the accomodation, income security and the education of refugees should be supplied and a construction should be formed to save them from the violence."
MA / Sevda Aydın