Strict measures taken to prevent coronavirus outbreak in displacement camps

Kurdish authorities have imposed a raft of policies to prevent an outbreak of the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region’s refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. 

Hassan Sham camp, home to 6,000 IDPs, most of them displaced from Mosul, is just one of the facilities to impose stringent rules. 

If any of the residents of the camp leave, they will not be allowed back in for 30 days.

Medical services inside the camp are open as normal, but schools have been suspended. The Barzani Charity Foundation, which manages the camp, has encouraged social distancing. 

The measures have had negative side effects, however, almost doubling the price of goods, placing further strain on already poor residents. Aid deliveries have also been delayed.

No coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Hassan Sham and or other camps in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. 

If a case does emerge, it is likely to spread quickly among camp communities living in close quarters. 

The KRG governs 38 camps, home to nearly a million IDPs and refugees.

Reporting by Hunar Ahmed