Ethnic minority lives, Ripon Ray,

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Debt Talk welcomes the publication of Baroness Hallett’s Covid Inquiry report and recognises both the gravity and the emotional weight of its findings.

For our community, the report is not abstract, it speaks directly to the losses, fears, and hardships we lived through. It confirms what British Bangladeshis experienced in real time: that the UK entered the pandemic unprepared; that systemic failures cost lives; and that longstanding inequalities determined who endured the greatest harm.

For British Bangladeshi families, COVID-19 was not only a public-health emergency but a deeply traumatic social and economic crisis.

We lost elders, parents, frontline workers, and community leaders. Many faced the compounded stress of overcrowded housing, insecure work, language barriers, and inconsistent access to trusted health information. These layers of pressure created profound emotional strain alongside the immediate health risks. Our project was founded because these experiences of grief, fear, and resilience were going unheard and undocumented.

The Hallett report reinforces the urgency of trauma-aware work. Its findings on strategic failures, weak governmental challenge, harmful communication gaps, and inadequate data reflect what our community shared through stories, testimonies, and lived experience. But acknowledgement alone cannot heal trauma or prevent its repetition.

Trauma-Informed Key Messages in Response to the Report:

• Pandemic planning must address inequality and the emotional harm it causes. One-size-fits-all strategies fail communities facing structural disadvantage. Preparedness must include clear assessments of how ethnicity, deprivation, housing, and occupation shape both risk and trauma during a crisis.

• Community voices must be central, not peripheral, to decision-making. The report highlights the need for stronger challenge within government. That challenge must include those who lived the reality of the pandemic: ethnic-minority, migrant, and low-income communities. Lived experience is essential to designing responses that protect lives and reduce harm.

• Public communication must be culturally informed, multilingual, and trauma-sensitive. Confusing messages, slow translation, and misinformation added to the distress families already felt. Future emergency communication must invest early in trusted community networks, accessible languages, and culturally competent outreach that reduces fear rather than deepening it.

• Data systems must make communities visible, safe and ethical. The absence of high-quality, disaggregated data obscured the realities facing many minority groups. Data collection must capture ethnicity, language, disability, and deprivation in a manner that fosters trust, protects privacy, and enables rapid support for those at the greatest risk.

• Long-term, trauma-aware support for families is still urgently needed. The emotional, physical, and financial impact of COVID-19 did not end when restrictions were lifted. Many British Bangladeshi families continue to navigate bereavement, long-COVID, mental-health strain, and economic hardship. Policy responses must acknowledge and address this ongoing trauma.

Our Commitment

Debt Talk CIC will continue safeguarding community memory, amplifying British Bangladeshi voices, and advocating for policies rooted in fairness, dignity, and healing. Through our book, exhibition, and ongoing community engagement, we show that storytelling is more than documentation — it is an act of collective recovery and resilience.

We stand ready to work with policymakers, researchers, and public-health bodies to ensure that the lessons of the Hallett report translate into meaningful, trauma-informed change for those most affected.

The next crisis will not wait. Implementation must begin now grounded in inclusion, accountability, and justice.

Debt Talk CIC 

Honouring our losses.

Uplifting our voices.

Building a fairer, safer future.

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