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Pandemic Deepens Hunger for Displaced People the World Over

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Human Wrongs Watch By Jenny Barchfield*

With COVID-19 lockdowns depriving many of jobs and income, increasing numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers are going hungry.

Chinar Gul with four of her five children. The family have been relying on food gifts from neighbours since the start of the pandemic.  © UNHCR/Lima Haidari

“After that, we were in trouble,” said Chinar. “During the lockdown, we missed one or two meals a day. I was just giving my children water and telling them that I would give them food later.”

Now, Chinar’s 10-year-old son spends his days collecting rubbish they can burn to stay warm, while the family relies on gifts of food from their neighbours. When the neighbours have nothing to spare, “we sleep hungry at night,” Chinar said. 

Even before COVID-19, decades of conflict, recurring natural disasters and a weak economy had been steadily eroding the ability of millions of Afghans to feed themselves.

By early in the pandemic, the country was already facing one of the most severe food crises in the world, and by the end of the year, 16.9 million people – a staggering 42 per cent of Afghanistan’s population – were facing “crisis” or “emergency” levels of food insecurity. Nearly half of all children under five are estimated to be at risk of acute malnutrition this year.

In response, UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations committed to providing food and other life-saving support to 15.7 million needy Afghans in 2021.

Food ration cuts deepen hardships

Aid is also critical to help keep displaced people in Eastern Africa from going hungry, particularly at a time when COVID-19 lockdowns have seen income from small businesses and casual work dry up, but recent funding shortfalls have led to food ration cuts for over 3 million refugees in the region.

UNHCR and the WFP have warned that the cuts – which have seen rations slashed by more than half in some countries – could lead to an increased incidence of malnutrition, anaemia and stunted child growth.

“The pandemic has been devastating for everyone, but for refugees even more so,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UNHCR’s Regional Bureau Director Bureau for the East, Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. “Unless more funds are made available, thousands of refugees – including children – will not have enough to eat.”

“We used to eat twice a day. Now we eat once.”

That is already the case for Vicky Comfort, a 17-year-old from South Sudan living in the Rhino Camp refugee settlement, in north-western Uganda. Her family of six have relied on food rations since fleeing home. But amid a US$77 million funding shortfall for operations in Uganda – which hosts the largest refugee population in Africa – the WFP was forced to cut food assistance to some 1.27 million refugees in February, by 40 per cent.  

“We used to eat twice a day. Now we eat once,” said Vicky, adding that she has noted the effects that the family’s reduced food intake has had on her health. “I have lost weight and my immunity is low. I’m always falling sick because of poor feeding.”

Besides skipping or reducing meals, Nkweta-Salami of UNHCR said the food ration cuts were resulting in refugees resorting to various other “negative coping strategies”, including taking out high-interest loans, selling off belongings and sending children out to work.

“There is often a desperation and a feeling of no alternative,” she said.

Basirika Doro, a 26-year-old South Sudanese woman living in the Imvepi refugee settlement, also in north-western Uganda, said that the experience of hunger has led her family to rethink their decision to leave South Sudan.

“This always forces us to think about our home country and wonder if we had not fled to this camp, maybe life would be better,” she said.  

*Reporting by Abdul Basir Wafa in Kabul; Peter Eliru in Uganda’s Rhino Camp refugee settlement; Vincent Kasule in Uganda’s Imvepi refugee settlement. *SOURCE: UNHCR. Go to ORIGINAL. 2021 Human Wrongs Watch

 


Source: https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2021/03/31/pandemic-deepens-hunger-for-displaced-people-the-world-over/


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