With the coronavirus menacing dozens of refugee camps, migrant centers and displacement sites across the Middle East, the region’s most vulnerable face a deepening nightmare. Agencies are bracing for the spread of the disease through crammed camps where feeble health systems, poor sanitation, warfare and political restraints could make it nearly impossible to contain.
In Yemen, nearly 3.6 million people are displaced, the vast majority living in makeshift camps with meager facilities or in overcrowded neighborhoods. The nation of Jordan also has been home to many tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.
It could end up being a humanitarian catastrophe in that region of the world.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
