Abstract

MOAWAD, P. & ANDRES, L., 2020, Decoding Syrian Refugees’ Covid-19 Vulnerability in Informal Tented Settlements: a Community/Refugee-Led Approach to Mitigate a Pandemic Outbreak, 2020, Town Planning Review, available: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cp-cloudpublish-public/p6/5f92d2ca010bb.pdf

Introduction

The implications of COVID-19 surpass the health aspects and bear heavy consequences for the most vulnerable, especially those in informal tented settlements (ITSs), unable to work, hence accentuating poverty and hunger. This is the case for refugees. The health crisis has led to stricter mechanisms in encampments, hindering the refugees’ capacity to survive. While it is still too early to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on such fragile communities, there is an urgent need to raise alerts on the impact of health-led preventive and containment measures on marginalising refugees further. This imperative builds upon recent calls to reconsider the local response to health emergencies in informal urban settlements (Wilkinson, 2020). Planners have a key role to play in addressing refugees’ vulnerabilities holistically with a more inclusive understanding of their needs along with the host community’s members. Refugees’ livelihoods vary from one context to another; attention is here given to Lebanon and specifically Syrian refugees in ITSs.