Left Behind: The Multiple Impacts of Covid-19 on Forcibly Displaced People

Abstract

To better understand vaccination barriers and the impacts of Covid-19 on forcibly displaced persons (FDPs, i.e. refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs)), World Vision International carried out a multi-country survey of refugee populations in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jordan, and Turkey, and IDPs in Venezuela. The survey found that a combination of barriers led to FDPs falling through the gaps of national Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, despite their heightened vulnerability to Covid-19 infection and transmission. Only one person out of the 1,914 FDPs surveyed reported receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. The survey also highlighted the significant indirect impacts of the pandemic on forcibly displaced families, and children specifically, with the socioeconomic aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic worsening displaced children’s deprivations across health and nutrition, protection support, and education.