Rohingya refugees struggling to get vaccinated in COVID-hit India | Coronavirus pandemic News

New Delhi, India – Earlier this month, Noor Aisha, a 55-year-old Rohingya refugee, died of complications from COVID-19 at a government hospital in Kashmir, India.

Aisha was among the more than 200 refugees arrested three months ago and arrested in the Kathua district of the Himalayan region for living “illegally” in India.

“The mother already had minor breathing and heart problems,” said Al Jazeera’s Akhtar Hussain, Aisha’s 21-year-old son.

“After his arrest on March 6 with others, his health began to deteriorate.”

Aisha and her 70-year-old husband, Nadim Hussain, were arrested on March 6 along with 220 other undocumented Rohingya and sent to Hiranagar prison in Kathua after a government check.

While in prison, at least 53 of these refugees tested positive for COVID-19.

“We immediately isolated these people and gave them medicines as prescribed by the doctor,” the police director of Hiranagar Holding Center told Al Jazeera, who did not want to be named.

Police said the facility has given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 57 Rohingya prisoners over the age of 45.

“We have a medical team that comes in every day to check on the health of the prisoners,” he said.

A doctor from the Government Medical College in Kathua said Aisha recovered and gave a negative on June 6th.

“According to our doctors, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia at the time of his death at the time of his death,” Deep Jaberi, Deepk Abrol, head of the oncology department and hospital spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

“In simple words, he died of a heart attack due to a post-KOVID disease.”

Fears of arrest and deportation

The Indian-administered Jammu region of Kashmir is home to nearly 6,000 Rohingya refugees who fled military repression in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“I left Myanmar with my parents and came to India through the mountains of Bangladesh,” said Hussain, who arrived in Jammura in 2014 to reunite with his brother who had moved there earlier.

“We walked for a few days without food and water to get to Bangladesh and then stayed in Kolkata for a few days before coming to Jammura.”

But refugees living in Jammu are constantly arrested and feared for deportation to their country, who was kidnapped by the military in a February 1 coup.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and therefore does not accept refugee cards issued by the UNHCR refugee agency.

As a result, they are not entitled to access to ration, housing, education or government health plans. A second strong wave of the coronavirus pandemic has only added to its misfortunes.

Last week, a large fire broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp in Madanpur Khadar, a shack on the banks of the Yamuna River in the Indian capital New Delhi.

Firefighters set fire to the fire, turning a Rohingya camp to ashes in New Delhi [Meer Faisal/Al Jazeera]

The fire left more than 200 refugees homeless, including 35-year-old Mohammad Saleemullah, who lost his wife Fatima against COVID.

“My wife developed symptoms of COVID-19 fever and shortness of breath last year,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he was not given any treatment when he was taken to a local doctor.

“Fatima passed away eight months ago when she was 29,” he said. “After I died, I was devastated and sick for many days.”

Saleemulah described Madanpur Khadar as a camp “full of rubbish and disease”.

‘How to apply for a vaccine?’

Community activists say more than 20,000 Rohingya are struggling to pay for treatment or be vaccinated because there are no legal documents and job opportunities.

Last month the Indian Ministry of Health released a new guideline that allowed people who do not have a biometric Identity Card called Aadhaar to be vaccinated.

UNHCR welcomed it.

“This will allow vulnerable groups and asylum seekers to be vaccinated.” said a UNHCR spokesman in New Delhi.

“Inclusion in health responses and vaccinations for social safety nets are essential to protect refugees and their hosts from the COVID-19 virus. Caring for their health also protects the health of host communities and members of society.”

However, Rohingya activists say the implementation of the Ministry of Health directive still requires proactive efforts by community representatives to organize and coordinate the push.

This coordination is carried out by a local representative or organization, who often use their IDs and telephone numbers to book slots on behalf of refugees.

“We have deployed 102 Rohingya refugees in Jaipur with the help of a local NGO,” Dr. RK Sharma, a doctor in the state capital of Rajasthan, told Al Jazeera. “The second dose will also be administered based on the same ID and mobile number.”

While the Jaipur vaccine began, refugee camps in New Delhi and Jammu are still waiting for the government to be informed.

“No one came here to give us the vaccine or told us how to get the vaccine,” said Mohammad Younis, 46, who has lived in the Jammu camp since 2008.

“They treat us as outsiders, illegal immigrants. We don’t know when they will throw us out or throw us out. ‘

Mushtaq Ahmed, the head of the Rohingya community in Jammu, said that “the only way to fight this disease is to vaccinate everyone equally.”

Although those seeking the vaccine must register through a government portal, India’s digital divide does not help either.

“The Indian government has made the process of registering vaccines online,” said Sabber Kyaw Min Rohingya, founder and director of the Human Rights Initiative, a community group based in New Delhi.

“Most of these people don’t have the ID card needed to enter or register on the phone. So how do you apply for a vaccine?”

This report was written and produced as part of a media skills development program provided by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.