The appeal, put together by the Disasters Emergency Committee and 14 other charitable organisations, has been created to aid the millions of displaced refugees around the world currently living in camps who are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus pandemic.

The organisers have just announced that in its first day the campaign raised over £5m.

It comes in the wake of a DEC warning about 24 million refugees from Yemen, Syria, Somalia South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan and a further 850,000 Rohingya people living in Bangladeshi refugee camps were at an extreme risk from COVID-19.

Refugees living in camps are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus due to both their over-crowded nature and lack of clean water and regular access to soap or basic medical supplies.

There are also little or no specialist ventilator machines to help treat anyone who does fall ill.

Here in the UK we have all had to make unprecedented sacrifices to protect each other and save lives, so it is deeply humbling to also see the British public responding so generously to those in the world’s most fragile places who desperately need our help. We are very fortunate here to have an incredible National Health Service which has cared for those who have fallen ill. The money so generously donated to the DEC appeal will help people in countries where there is no NHS; families who have fled conflict and hunger – and who are now living in overcrowded refugee and displacement camps with few hospital beds or medical supplies.