The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continues to support the Prisons Directorate in Bangladesh amid COVID-19 to help mitigate the risk of the spread of coronavirus infection among prisoners and prison staff.
Three isolation centers, 70-bed in the central jail of Keraniganj, 41-bed in Feni District Jail-2, and 28-bed in Kishoreganj District Jail-2, were inaugurated on Sunday by Asaduzzaman Khan, Minister of Home Affairs.
The ICRC said this is a result of a close cooperation between the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the Prisons Directorate, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and the ICRC.
An outbreak of COVID-19 in a prison could have devastating effects on both the prisoners and the staff, especially in overcrowded facilities where the health care system is already burdened, it said.
Md Mokabbir Hossain, Secretary of the Security Services Division, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Brigadier General Md Mominur Rahman Mamun, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons, Colonel Md Abrar Hossain, Additional IG Prisons, and Henning Krause, ICRC Protection Coordinator in Bangladesh attended the inauguration event held today in the premises of Keraniganj Central Jail.
Elaborating the ICRC’s support to help set up isolation centers in three prisons amid COVID-19, Katja Lorenz, the ICRC Head of Delegation in Bangladesh said: “Prisoners are among the most vulnerable population when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. Hence, it is essential for the prisons to be able to separate prisoners who have caught the virus from the rest of the prison population. Our support included designing and setting up the centers and providing technical support to establish guidelines and to implement infection prevention and control measures. We also provided basic medical and sanitation equipment as well as furniture.”
Brigadier General Md Mominur Rahman Mamun, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons said: “The Prisons Directorate has been consistently working since the beginning of the pandemic to develop an efficient and comprehensive system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside prisons. These constant efforts involve all the PD staff from HQ to prison guards. This work has been supported by different partners, including the MoHA, the MoHFW, and the ICRC present from the very start and actively involved in different projects such as: trainings on precautionary measures against COVID-19 for prison staff, regular distribution of PPE in all 68 prisons, and the renovation and equipment of three isolation centers for detainees who caught COVID-19, that we are inaugurating today.”
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh in 2020, the ICRC has cooperated with the Prisons Directorate to identify the most important needs of the response to the pandemic in the prisons and has continuously supported the Prisons Directorate to assist the prisoners and prison staff.
In 2021, the ICRC continues supporting the Prisons Directorate in its efforts to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 by donating Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to selected prisons and the Prisons Directorate Headquarters. It is currently preparing another donation to all 68 prisons across Bangladesh as requested by the Prisons Directorate to tackle the latest wave of the pandemic.
