Amnesty Int’l expresses concern about hospitals refusing to admit people

An Amnesty International investigation found that the hospitals refused to admit people with symptoms of Covid-19 despite having capacity to diagnose and treat them.

While health care systems around the world have been facing capacity constraints to tackle the numbers of people affected by Covid-19, governments have a responsibility to use their maximum available resources to ensure that people have access to timely and quality health care.

Human rights issues must be at the centre of all prevention, preparedness, containment and treatment efforts in response to Covid-19 in Bangladesh, said Amnesty International on Thursday in a report.

Besides, international co-operation and assistance are required to ensure that the Bangladesh government can meet its health needs in response to Covid-19, consistent with human rights law and standards, it mentioned.

“Bangladesh faces particular challenges in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak given its existing poor health infrastructure,” said the report.

It further said: “The government must respect, protect and fulfil the right to health, the right of the health workers, the right to social security, the right of the workers in the informal sector, and the right to access to information and freedom of expression.”

Besides, Bangladesh authorities must also protect the right to health of nearly a million Rohingya refugees, who are at the greatest risk of being disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

The report also highlighted some of the key human rights concerns arising from the Bangladesh government’s responses to Covid-19 and urges the government to ensure that human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled at all stages of its preparation, planning and response to Covid-19.

Amnesty International is concerned about disturbing reports in the media where hospitals did not admit ailing people exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms.

Bangladesh government, instead of fostering and facilitating access to information, has been clamping down on the press, especially the online media, in the pretext of stopping the spread of rumours, it added.

However, the Covid-19 crisis in Bangladesh has unfolded a disturbing pattern of stigmatization, public-shaming and discrimination of medical staff, patients and their families, it said adding that “there are also reports emerging of violence perpetrated against migrant workers who have returned from their jobs overseas, labelling them as carriers of Covid-19.”

The government has shut down all activities other than emergency services and put in place restrictions on movement of all kinds of public transport.

“Inevitably, these measures have had serious impact on people's right to work and their right to adequate standards of living. Particularly the people living in poverty, lower incomes, and the people working in the informal sector are more severely impacted by the shutdown,” the Amnesty International added.

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