Millions of migrants and refugees are deprived of adequate healthcare services, and host countries should include them in their health systems as a human right, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
In an effort to review the implications of migration for global health care policies, the organization called for urgent action to support vulnerable people leaving their countries.
“Health does not begin or end at a country’s borders,” Santino Severoni, director of health and migration at the World Health Organization, said in a statement. Therefore, immigration status should not be a discriminatory factor but rather a political driver to build and strengthen health care and social and financial protection.”
“We must reorient the current health systems towards integrated and comprehensive health services for refugees and migrants, in accordance with the principles of primary health care and universal health coverage,” he added.
Factors including disease, famine, climate change and war are driving people in large numbers to leave their homes. For the first time ever, the number of displaced people exceeded 100 million, which represents a severe test for health systems in countries that have not yet recovered from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the foreword to the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “The full extent of the impact of these disruptions is not yet fully understood because, as this report makes clear, the numbers of refugees and migrants are not fully reflected in the available data, which is a serious gap that needs to be addressed.”
Refugees and migrants have health needs that may differ from those of the population of host countries. The report stated that some migrants and refugees experienced high levels of food insecurity and had to forgo daily meals or borrow money to buy food.
The report added that overcrowding in refugee camps has led to the faster transmission of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and there are indications that the stress of adapting to new environments, unemployment or psychological trauma can increase the likelihood of drug abuse.
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