Delhi: Away from homeland, no vaccination adds to Covid plight

NEW DELHI: After a Myanmarese refugee living in west Delhi died of Covid-19, the landlord asked his fellow inhabitants to vacate the house.
This is only one aspect of the adversity brought upon refugees from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Pakistan by the novel coronavirus pandemic. They are ineligible for the vaccine under the current process and thus bear the social stigma of being risky communities.
“They had arrived in India only a few weeks ago after the recent violence in Myanmar,” said Ruata Fanai, chairman of the Chin Refugee Committee (CRC), of the beleaguered refugees in west Delhi.“We don’t have money for tests or medicine, but more importantly, we can’t get vaccinated because the rules require specific ID papers, and there is misery all around.”
Fanai said that most of the 3,200 registered Chin refugees, who hail from the Burmese province abutting Mizoram, work as factory workers, labourers and house maids in Delhi. They are Christians and most of them live in Vikaspuri, Budhela, Hastsal, Chanakya Place and Uttam Nagar. “People who have left their houses and country behind have nothing to sustain themselves during a lockdown. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not helping either,” claimed Fanai.
Danasty Kelnilen, secretary, CRC, disclosed that four refuges had been claimed by Covid, while over a hundred have been infected. The number of Burmese refugees in Delhi has increased after the recent political upheaval in Myanmar. He added that the Chin community had set up a small isolation centre at a church in Janakpuri to help the infected individuals.
With the Aadhaar card or a government IDs mandatory for registering for Covid vaccination, the refugees have no prospect of getting the protective jab. Sabber Kyaw Min, director, Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, revealed that many pleas for making the refugees’ UNHCR documents eligible for their inoculation registration have gone unheard.
Min said, “Many cases of infection are being reported among Rohingyas in Delhi and Haryana. But they have been refused vaccination due to the lack of a government ID. UNHCR should help us in some way.” He also alleged that unlike last year, no ration was being distributed in the refugee camps this time. There are also complaints that landlords have increased the rents for those who are leasing rooms.
It is estimated that there are around 900 registered Rohingya refugees in the city, mostly settled in Shram Vihar camp and Kanchan Kunj camp near Madanpur Khadar in southeast Delhi. While Shram Vihar houses around 100 families, the Kanchan Vihar camp has around 55 families. Most of the people work as labourers, domestic workers, grocers and ragpickers.
Refugees from Afghanistan are also facing similar struggles. Surbeer Singh, a 39-year-old Afghan Sikh who fled Afghanistan last year and has since been living in Delhi, said the risk of Covid had increased so much, but he and the over 80 refugee families can only hope to receive the vaccine. “We will be grateful to the government of India if that happens. We have approached an NGO for assistance,” added Singh.
Parvinder Singh Nanda, director, United Sikhs, an NGO that has helped rehabilitate the refugees, said the organisation was considering options on the issue, including approaching the local MLA and the area sub-divisional magistrate. “Since these people don’t have proper documentation, far less an Aadhaar card, it is difficult for them to get vaccinated in the current process,” said Nanda. “We have approached Aam Aadmi Party’s Tilak Nagar MLA Jarnail Singh for assistance and he has assured us of their inoculation soon. Their passports may be used as identity proof.”