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The world’s refugee camps are a coronavirus disaster in waiting: Most are still free of the virus, but desperately ill-equipped to withstand it

Photo Credit: AP

Eerie silence shrouds the shops of the Lambasia refugee camp in Bangladesh, broken only by the tinny summons of the call to prayer, echoing down deserted streets. As if from nowhere, Rohingya men and boys emerge, filling the narrow trenches that run between their bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters. Some wear masks that match their prayer caps—lip-service to the soldiers on patrol as their wearers flout a ban on gatherings.

They are refugees from Myanmar, where the army has been mass-murdering Muslim Rohingya and burning their villages. Many have lost faith in earthly authorities to protect them. “Allah will save us from corona,” says one mosque-goer.

Read the article on The Economist

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