Republic of Yemen

United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees

Ensuring Refugees Survival in The Midst of
COVID-19 Pandemic
Siti Astiani Solihah

Enshrined in the 1951 Convention of Refugee, it is the duty for all member states to provide
protection and ensure the welfare of refugees (UNHCR, 1951). As a country that produces refugees
and is currently the world's 2nd largest host of Somali refugees (UNHCR, 2021), the Republic of
Yemen has tried to uphold the convention by providing equal access to basic needs for all of them.
However, the civil war that continues on Yemeni soil until now has challenged this effort and pushed
more citizens to flee the country. This was then exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak which
placed refugees in greater risk of contracting the virus. Yemen's health system, which is already on
the verge of collapse due to 5 years of civil war, has been struggling to cope with the situation
(Médecins Sans Frontières, 2020). Despite this challenge, the Republic of Yemen is still trying to
ensure equal and unhindered access to food, sanitary, medical and mental health care for
internationally displaced persons and refugees regardless of their legal status.

The pandemic has caused refugees all over the world to be increasingly marginalized from the
economic sector which has an impact on the loss of their livelihoods. Refugees now rely heavily on
aid. Therefore, ever since the start of the outbreak, the government of Yemen has cooperated with
UN to ensure unhindered access for humanitarian organizations to distribute aid to all parts of
Yemen. Unfortunately, Houthi controls over some areas has made aid distribution difficult (United
Nations, 2021). To ensure the health of many refugees in Yemen, under the help of the WHO,
UNHCR and other non-governmental organizations, we have also held diplomatic talks with the
rebels to distribute 10,000 vaccines to that area. However, the disagreement between WHO and the
rebels has paused the effort, making many refugees more at risk of being exposed to the virus
(Aldroubi, 2021).

UNHCR itself has ruled out several programs such as integrated Refugee Health Information
System (iRHIS), Global Protection Cluster (GCP), Minimum Economic Recovery Standards
(MERS) to ensure the safety of refugees. Despite this effort, Yemeni refugees and many other
refugees around the world are still at greater risk of contracting the virus and being denied access to
proper medical care since host countries are more reluctant to grant legal status to asylum seekers
due to their negative stigma as a carrier of the virus. This condition has also been exacerbated by
the economic contraction experienced by various countries so that restoring the domestic economy
has become a top priority which further marginalized refugees from the attention of the host
country.

In response to this issue, Republic of Yemen would like to propose several recommendations:

Phase I
This first phase aims to address the most crucial problems experienced by refugees. Due to the
economic crisis, it would seem ineffective to ask countries to contribute more funds to building new
infrastructure. Therefore, it would be wise to utilize the existing facilities. The best way to protect
the health of refugees is to maximize the vaccination program so as to reduce the chances of refugees
being exposed to the virus. UNHCR with WHO could work together with local governments and
NGOs to ensure the distribution of vaccines to all refugee populations evenly. This program could
not be executed properly without involving the beligerents in conflicting countries. Therefore
UNCHR along with local government could also hold a special session aiming at reaching mutual
understanding between these parties. UNHCR could also provide training on vaccination for former
healthcare workers among refugees so they could help the program. Additional doses of vaccines
for host countries could become the incentive for them to accept refugees into their territories. Along
with this, UNHCR should also ensure the pre-existing programs run well.

Phase II
This second phase consists of several actions aiming at preparing refugees for resettlement. This
could be done by formulating guidelines for intermediary or host countries to give refugees
temporary legal status so they could get access to necessary medical care.

UNHCR can provide skills training that are useful in the working field so as to provide assurance
to host countries that these refugees are not economic burdens. In addition, the arrival of skilled
refugees can also help the country to recover the economy thus providing more incentives for host
countries to accept them. UNHCR could also work with private sectors to encourage them to absorb
labor from refugees.

Campaign through social media and seminars in host countries to fight xenophobia. So that there
would not be clashes between refugees and civilians once they get resettled.

Phase III
This third phase aims at resettling the refugees. This phase could be conducted when the pandemic
has subsided and border restrictions have been loosened. UNHCR could provide guidelines on post
pandemic resettlement process which take into account the unique conditions in host countries. The
guidebook consists of guiding procedure on registering refugee into the host countries and the
requirement of minimum standard of living for refugees. The implementation this guideline could
be adjusted by Member States in accordance with international and domestic law.

Yemen believes the solutions is final and could accommodate the well being of refugees and help
protect the refugees from any more mistreatment. Moreover, Yemen would open for further
discussion and collaboration with others Member States’ solutions towards this issue.
 Bibliography

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