Corona virus statistics on screen - by Markus Spiske from Pexels
EASA supports demands that migrants and asylum seekers should be given equal treatment during Covid-19 pandemic
Researchers from anthropology and other disciplines who have been focusing on asylum, refugee, migration and other border crossing issues have joined forces in raising the alarm about conditions in reception centres and camps for several years now.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 emergency, the border-crossing people caught up in these terrible conditions are in immediate and serious danger of contracting the disease, and do not have the opportunity to practice basic protection for themselves, such as regular handwashing and cleaning of surfaces, social distancing, quarantine and isolation. These people are especially vulnerable at this time.
EASA fully supports recent efforts by anthropologists and other researchers, as well as humanitarian organizations to demand that all people should be treated equally in being given access to both self-protection and treatment during the Covid-19 emergency, whether or not they live in camps, reception centres or are seeking asylum.
EASA notes with serious concern the multiple reports that conditions in such camps are not allowing the people living in them to exercise these basic human rights, and fully supports the launching of a forum of researchers to campaign on this issue. We will provide links to the forum of researchers working on this issue once it has been set up.
