March 15, 2020

Empathy at the time of COVID-19

topic:	Refugees and Asylum
located:	Afghanistan, Iran
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

With the world around us in the clutches of creeping fears of the novel coronavirus, empathy amongst community members, particularly towards the poor and marginalised needs to not to be lost to selfish individualism.

For instance, the lack of empathy under these circumstances in Iran towards the poor Afghan migrants seeking a better and secure life resulted in mass deportation back to their war-ravaged country, with a fragile health system.

Dozens of cases confirmed in Afghanistan are all traced back to Iran, and more are feared as the deportees – at least two thousand on daily basis – return to their poor neighbourhoods in different parts of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan woke up to face the grim challenge posed by COVID-19 at least three months after the virus was first detected in China in December 2019. The eminent threat eventually forced Afghan authorities to act when the virus came knocking on the country’s western border with Iran, after Tehran announced its first cases in February.

Within weeks, as the fear gripped the war-weary nation, opportunists in the trade of basic commodities lost their empathy towards the society, resulting in exploitation of this fear and shooting-up of prices.

In markets across Kabul, the Afghan capital, people who could afford queued to buy and stock as much as they could and the poor war widows, orphans and disabled looked upon. This is an utter failure of the society’s collective consciousness at a time when it is needed the most.

The public service messaging, in all countries – particularly developing countries, needs to be full of empathy towards the most vulnerable members of the community in terms of their socioeconomic status so that no one is left behind just because they are poor and could not afford ways and means to protect themselves from the pandemic.

On the regional level, the Indian initiative of brining South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members to devise collective strategy is indeed a need of the hour. Iran needs to be brought under the umbrella as well, as it is proving to be the regional hub for the spread of the coronavirus.

No one should be looked down upon, no one should be left behind as the world fights a menace that recognises no borders, that does not differentiate between the poor and the rich.

Image: Gerd Altmann / Pixabay