7pc of NYC 's coronavirus deaths are Asians

Osman Chowdhury has not worked in more than a month. In the weeks since then, the taxi driver has attempted to get unemployment benefits, but New York City's unemployment filing system has kept him swinging like a pendulum, he said.

He said that he feels the city is pulling wool over his eyes, stalling him with questions and using loopholes in the system.

After he filed for unemployment, authorities called him to "interview" him, he said, to ask him if he has found a new job or is willing to do so.

"In this situation, under this lockdown, who will give us a job?" he said, exasperated. After the questioning, he was told he had to file again for pandemic unemployment assistance.

"They've kept us in this uncertainty, like running us through a mill, through the loopholes of the system," he said.

Chowdhury is not alone. Other workers, such as taxi driver Obaidul H Majumde, did not want to risk possible exposure to the novel coronavirus. He lives at his Brooklyn home with his two children, his wife and his parents, who live on a rotational basis between him and his other siblings.

As workers who depend on weekly earnings, they have struggled with expenses such as rent or groceries. Majumder says he is never late on rent payments, but is having to negotiate with his landlord for the first time. Chowdhury currently relies on his niece to send him groceries.

The two taxi drivers are part of the Bangladeshi community, which according to the 2010 census, is one of the fastest-growing South Asian populations in New York City. It also is a community that has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, which has infected more than 162,000 people and killed at least 12,000 across New York City.

The city's Bangladeshi community is spread across primarily three boroughs: Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. These areas have some of the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases, according to government data.

Many in the Bangladeshi community know someone or of someone who has died from COVID-19. More than 210 Bangladeshis in the US have died, with about 190 in New York alone, according to Md Taher, a community health worker in Brooklyn.

About 7 percent of the city's coronavirus deaths are known to be Asians, according to government data of cases with known race or ethnicity. While it is far lower than other racial and ethnic groups, it is unclear what percentage of the Bangladeshi community has been infected with or died from the virus, and advocates say the group has been hit particularly hard due to high levels of poverty, close living quarters, many working in the informal labour market and high rates of diabetes.

"Overall, it's the working-class community that is affected," said Kazi Fouzia, a community leader and organiser, adding that the danger of the virus is for "any of us who can't afford full quarantine, who live in shared apartments" which has affected other South Asian communities as well.

Source: Al Jazeera

 

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