In his address, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi had highlighted that the global calamity affecting the world today has brought us to the realization that united action and cooperation is the key to combat the viral disaster. The outbreak of COVID 19 has confronted us with the most inevitable global public health emergency crisis. The virus which started off as an infectious respiratory disease in China last year quickly spiralled into a global disaster.[1] The latest infection numbers and death tolls seem unlikely to draw a line to its astonishingly large list. The World Health Organization regarded the virus as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, and as of July, the number of cases worldwide has exceeded the 10 million mark (Worldometer, 2020). Since the arrival of the calamitous virus, almost every country in the world has stumbled upon a large number of problems. In order to resist the lethality of the infection, most countries have adopted a number of strategies such as strict lockdown measures, shutdown of borders and implementation of immigration and travel bans. However, the vast trail of implications left behind by the virus along with stringent safety measures and health and hygiene protocols ought to have a veritable impact on one of the most endangered sections of society—refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and asylum seekers. The COVID 19 pandemic may be a very recent threat to the entire global community but the refugee crisis that the world is facing has been lurking around for long and has assumed a menacing character. The disproportionate effects of the pandemic put them at the risk of not only contracting the infection but also losing their means of livelihood and liberty. This research article claims to study the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the lives of refugees in mainly two turbulent regions of the world—Asia and the Middle East.

Download PDF for full text.