Migration, Displacement, Detention, Shelter and Settlements

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance: Humanitarian operations, camps, and other fragile settings as well as refugees and migrants in non-humanitarian and non-camp settings

As leaders and organizations of civil society around the world – many of us ourselves migrants and refugees or their children and grandchildren – we urgently call on States and government authorities at all levels to protect migrants and refugees in this global COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

People experiencing homelessness are at risk for infection during community spread of COVID-19. This interim guidance is intended to support response planning by emergency management officials, public health authorities, and homeless service providers, including overnight emergency shelters, day shelters, and meal service providers.

Includes Shelter Cluster Covid-19 Key Messages, a dashboard of confirmed Covid-19 cases in countries where Shelter Cluster is active, and a collection of documents from partners or country-level clusters.

This brief sets out key considerations for protecting informal urban settlements from the spread and impacts of COVID-19. There is heightened concern about these settings because of the combination of population density and limited infrastructure. This briefing discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local action. It can be viewed in conjunction with the Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) briefings on quarantine and social media.

Addresses specific needs and considerations required in humanitarian situations, including camps and camp-like settings and the surrounding host communities, in scaling-up readiness and response operations for the COVID-19 outbreak through effective multi-sectoral partnership.

Persons deprived of their liberty face higher vulnerabilities as the spread of the virus can expand rapidly due to the usually high concentration of persons deprived of their liberty in confined spaces and to the restricted access to hygiene and health care in some contexts. International standards highlight that states should ensure that persons in detention have access to the same standard of health care as is available in the community, and that this applies to all persons regardless of citizenship, nationality or migration status.

COVID-19 is likely to have a particularly significant direct and indirect impact on older people in poverty living in informal settlements – slums, shanty towns and favela communities. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of the conditions of homelessness in the USA and across the world. This resource from My Move provides vital information on homelessness in the U.S. including a clickable U.S. map, to help locate active programs.