Kutupalong (Bangladesh) (AFP)

Hosting nearly a million refugees, the overcrowded and destitute Rohingya camps in southern Bangladesh raise fears of a nightmare scenario as the coronavirus pandemic approaches their region.

"We are extremely worried. If the virus arrives here, it will spread like a forest fire," Rohingya community leader Mohammad Jubayer, who lives in the middle of hills covered with bamboo huts and packed tarpaulins, told AFP. against others.

The miserable living conditions in which the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who fled mass persecution in neighboring Burma in the fall of 2017, live, make this the largest refugee camp in the world fertile ground for any disease. And a barrel of potential powder for the new coronavirus.

Social distancing is "virtually impossible", says Paul Brockman, Bangladesh director for the NGO Médecins sans frontières, "vulnerable populations like the Rohingya will be disproportionately hit by Covid-19".

Each shed is barely 10 square meters and can accommodate up to 12 people living in close proximity. "You can hear your next door neighbor breathing," said an aid worker.

Here, masks, which have become essential in the rest of the world, are rare. As for hydroalcoholic gels for disinfecting hands, they are unknown.

Bangladesh currently has 39 confirmed cases of coronavirus which has already killed 5 people there. But experts consider this number greatly underestimated due to the small amount of tests carried out in this South Asian nation of 160 million inhabitants.

- 'A new massacre' -

While a third of humanity is confined to their homes, most Rohingya people know little or nothing about the current world situation. Bangladesh has cut internet access in camps since the end of last year to better control them.

"Most of us don't know what this disease is. People have only heard that it kills a lot. We don't have the internet to find out what's going on," says Sayed Ullah, a community leader.

"We rely on divine mercy," he adds.

Lokman Hakim, a 50-year-old refugee, is concerned about the lack of preventive measures in the coronavirus camps. "We received soap and we were told to wash our hands. And that's it," he said.

The numerous humanitarian workers who allow hundreds of thousands of refugees to survive, as well as the Rohingya from the diaspora coming to the camps, are all possible vectors for the introduction of the coronavirus.

In these conditions, the local authorities reduce the access of people outside the camps.

"We have downplayed the humanitarian work in the camps. Only activities related to food, health and legal problems will continue," Bimol Chakma, an official with the Bangladesh refugee agency, told AFP.

Rohingyas living abroad in countries heavily affected by the coronavirus try to warn their relatives in the camps by phoning them. But many Rohingya expatriates returned without being screened.

"If they are carriers of the virus and mingle with the crowds, it will be a new massacre, much bigger than what happened in 2017," said Mojib Ullah, a Rohingya activist based in Australia, in reference to the repression in Burma that UN investigators have called "genocide".

© 2020 AFP