– I will not be surprised if I hear that there have been many people there, says the Norwegian prison officer.
Thursday, March 11, marks one year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the corona epidemic a global pandemic. Covid-19 has so far claimed 2.6 million lives.
All the citizens of the world are affected by the pandemic in one way or another. Restrictions on freedom of movement, financial consequences, illness and death have left deep scars in the past year.
For people who were already in a humanitarian crisis, the pandemic became extra brutal.
The online newspaper has interviewed an employee of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a Norwegian prison officer who gives an insight into how the pandemic hit the most vulnerable areas in the world.
The Norwegian prison officer Kai Rene Olsen was in one of the countries that was already in crisis when the pandemic broke out in full force. South Sudan is not only one of the world’s youngest countries, but also one of the world’s most dangerous countries.
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Olsen was recruited through the Norwegian Prison and Probation Service and the Norwegian Refugee Council’s emergency response force NORCAP, to work as a prison officer in a UN-run custody prison in a refugee camp in South Sudan. The purpose of the mission was to support the UN mandate to protect the civilian population.
– According to the UN mandate, we were to protect the civilians in the refugee camp. There is always serious crime going on, and it is considered a threat to civilians. So when UN soldiers arrested people, they were placed in our custody prison awaiting a fair trial. Some were there for a few days, others were there for a few months and some could be there for a whole year, Olsen says.
He was also to ensure that human rights were upheld in custody.
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– They came to the door with a thermometer for me
Olsen lived and worked in South Sudan for one year and three months before he was evacuated to Norway. The first year he was stationed in a refugee camp in Bentiu. The rest of the time he worked in a refugee camp in Juba. There he got to feel on his body what it was like to get sick with covid-19 in a crisis-stricken country with minimal access to health services.
– After a while in Juba, I and another Norwegian colleague became infected with covid. I felt symptoms on May 29 last year. The first week I had mild symptoms. After nine days, it hit full force. I got spread to my lungs and had difficulty breathing with cough, decreased appetite, back pain and fever, says Olsen.
– We notified the medical clinic in the UN camp that we had developed symptoms. Then someone came to the door and gave me a thermometer. I was told to monitor my own symptoms and report daily form by phone. As a layman, I was left to myself to monitor my own symptoms, he says.
– I was sitting in a container that was maybe 3.5 times 7 meters big. There was a bed, desk and fridge, but no toilet. I had to use the shared toilet, so I have probably spread the virus to others without knowing about it, Olsen says.
– A psychological burden
South Sudanese authorities eventually came to the camp and conducted a test, and Olsen was diagnosed with covid 19. Olsen says he was at times anxious and affected by the situation.
– It was a psychological strain, but no worse than being able to live with it. I was in good spirits because I knew that I had NRC and Norway behind me, and that I could contact if I got really bad, but I had periods where I was anxious, says Olsen.
As Olsen’s course of illness worsened, he was transferred to a medical clinic in the capital, Juba.
– There I got medicine. I was given the malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine by an American doctor. I felt fresher already after five days. So for my part, it did the trick. On June 16, I was flown home in an ambulance flight to Norway and was admitted to Haukeland Hospital in Bergen. I was discharged the next day.
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The long flight home was also a strain with massive infection control measures to prevent the spread.
– I was lying in bed in a sausage-tubed plastic container on board the plane. I could not go to the bathroom, but had a urinary catheter inserted. It was a long flight, but I got both valium and sleeping pills. It was a relief to come home to Norway, he says.
– Not surprised if many have deleted
Olsen is today completely healthy and has no after-effects of covid-19. He considers himself lucky that way.
– How were South Sudanese affected by the pandemic that hit them?
– My impression is that covid had come full circle, especially in Juba. South Sudanese basically have a weakly developed health care system, so they are used to accepting a health threat. And that was the attitude they had towards covid as well. But I do not think they always understood the seriousness and importance of keeping a social distance. There were many who said to me: “this is just another flu”. I will not be surprised if I hear that there have been many people there, he says.
According to WHO’s latest figures There are 8870 registered cases of infection and 102 deaths in South Sudan, but the country’s very limited health capacity suggests that there are obviously large dark numbers.
– Less infection than feared
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which is present in some 30 countries around the world, says that the pandemic has been catastrophic for the world’s 80 million displaced people. The economic consequences of the pandemic have resulted in even more people experiencing hunger and homelessness.
In the last year, the health effect of covid-19 has been less than feared in the countries where NRC is present. But the secondary effect is much greater than we had thought. By secondary effect, we mean how, for example, people’s incomes and jobs have been affected by restrictions that have been introduced, and that they thus lose access to food, shelter and education, says director of partnership and policy in the Norwegian Refugee Council, Ole Solvang, to Nettavisen .
According to a study conducted by the Norwegian Refugee Council, displaced people are more anxious to lose income and access to food than they are for the disease covid-19 itself.
– The ripple effects are different from place to place. Many countries in the Middle East, such as Jordan and Iraq, were hit hard by very strict restrictions imposed at the beginning of the pandemic. But common to many of the countries is that when you get a downturn in the economy and restrictions that affect, for example, trade, it will have a great effect on those who live from hand to mouth. If they suddenly lose day jobs, it will be more difficult to get food for the family the next day, says Solvang.
Very many host countries for refugees have experienced a large drop in gross national product (GDP) during the pandemic. Countries such as Lebanon, Colombia and Bangladesh have experienced a fall in GDP of 19 percent, 7 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
On the sub-Saharan African continent, economic activity has fallen by 3.7 per cent by 2020. 140 countries have closed their borders during the pandemic. In 60 of these countries, no exceptions were made for asylum seekers.
Fewer elderly and infection control measures
Numbers from UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that “only” 50,000 of the world’s 26 million refugees in 105 countries have been detected with coronary heart disease. Poor test capacity in many countries suggests that there are large dark numbers, but the figures still say something about the fact that the world’s refugee camps have apparently been able to keep the infection under control.
– What do you think is the reason why the negative health effect of covid-19 has been less than expected among displaced people and refugees, Solvang?
– Many factors may have played a role here, including demographics and climate. For example, there are fewer elderly people in many of the countries we work in, and we know that the elderly are more vulnerable to covid-19. In addition, we and others have done much to limit infection among refugees and displaced persons in these countries. NRC has been involved in expanding the refugee camps, we have run information campaigns on hygiene and infection control, and we have expanded sanitary facilities. We have organized distribution in a completely different way than before, so that you no longer stand physically in long queues to get assistance. There has been a greater distance between people in the camps, he says.
– We have also been extremely careful not to bring infection into the camps.
– How has the pandemic affected the work of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Solvang?
– We have worked hard to maintain our services and the support we provide. We have managed that by and large. But we have fierce challenges in many countries. When there are travel restrictions within a country, it can make it more difficult for us to continue our work. In Jordan, for example, strict travel restrictions were introduced at the beginning of the pandemic, which made it difficult for us to provide assistance in the refugee camps. We solved this by several of our employees choosing to settle inside the camps in order to maintain the support, he says.
– Another challenge is international travel. In the beginning, there was almost a complete stop on commercial flights. Then it was difficult to get the right people into vulnerable areas when we needed replacements, says Solvang.
– It is important to emphasize that NRC is not against these restrictions. Restrictions are needed in many places to overcome the spread. What we are concerned about is that restrictions that are introduced are proportional and that measures are introduced to help those who are hardest hit, he says.
Some countries are cutting back on aid
In 2020, aid organizations had an appeal to the world community to contribute $ 38 billion to meet humanitarian needs. The total amount ended at just over 18 billion, that is less than half of the original appeal.
– Has the pandemic changed the desire to donate to rich western countries?
– We see that many countries have maintained the support, and in some cases the support has been increased with a separate covid-19 contribution. But some countries are now cutting back on aid. Britain is perhaps the worst example. There, we now fear cuts of up to 70 percent in humanitarian contributions to some countries. This applies to countries such as Syria, Somalia, Nigeria and South Sudan. These are countries that really need this support, says Solvang.
– This is not the time to cut humanitarian aid. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we share a common destiny. If we fail to address the pandemic in the most vulnerable areas, it will hit us back, he says.
– What is important for us is that humanitarian aid is now maintained. It is needed more than ever. In addition, we must add the right for the poor countries to also receive vaccines, so that they too can return to a more normal state. And then we have to try to solve the underlying problems. It is difficult to fight a pandemic and to vaccinate a population while war rages to the fullest, says Solvang.
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