COVID-19 is a global pandemic that impacts everyone and does not discriminate based on citizenship. Refugees are part of communities. The speed with which COVID-19 has spread around the globe has been as extraordinary as the impact it has had on communities. This includes refugee communities, but in very particular ways. From refugees in remote and isolated camps, to refugees living in precarious conditions in urban settings, to all whose movement has been blocked by the closing of borders and increased state controls, scores of refugees have been significantly affected both by the arrival of the virus and by state policies implemented in response.

We heard how refugees have been excluded from healthcare systems in hard-hit countries like Iran, how the shut-down of the economy in countries has made previously self-reliant refugees destitute and desperate, and how asylum seekers in Greece remain in cramped conditions ripe for the rapid spread of the virus