International Organization for Migration (Geneva)
7 April 2006
press release
Geneva — Ensuring access to healthcare for migrants is key to improving global health and reducing the disease burden of countries, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as it marked World Health Day today.
With just under 200 million migrants in an increasingly mobile world and with numbers rising on an annual basis, addressing migration and health issues would have a significant impact on achieving the millennium development goals and on limiting the spread and impact of pandemics and communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.
However, undocumented migrants in particular, often don't have the same access to health care as others due to their irregular status, fear of deportation, lack of financial resources, language or cultural issues. Although many international declarations and conventions on human rights, including the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, recognise right to health as a human right, national health care systems and infrastructures as well as a migrant's legal status can deter people from accessing that right.
Tuberculosis is one of the biggest threats to public health globally because it is a disease that is re-emerging despite 50 years of efforts to eradicate it. Worryingly, it is also a disease which is re-emerging in a multi-drug resistant form in countries which had previously low TB incidence rates, and that is due in no small part to migration and poor access to health care for migrants.
"In countries where there are good health infrastructures, governments generally aim preventive measures at host populations and refugees, rather than an inclusive approach that targets every individual in the country. Considering that migrants, particularly irregular migrants, are more vulnerable to chronic health conditions, this approach is short-sighted," said Dr. Danielle Grondin, Director of IOM's Migration Health Department. "But we're not talking just about TB, but also other illnesses and other communicable diseases."
By ensuring access to affordable healthcare for everyone, including irregular migrants, efforts to prevent possible pandemics such as Avian flu, would be much more effective. Partnerships including that between IOM and the World Health Organization (WHO) on migration and health issues including the role of migration in the spread of communicable diseases, the migration of health resources and its impact on the provision of health care for both sending and receiving countries and on generating more accurate data on such issues, is important in efforts to help improve global health.
"Population mobility is the phenomena of our time but migrants have a hard time all round. Although they contribute to the development and wealth of countries, they are often maligned and discriminated. The issue of access to health care is but one aspect of that. But people in developed countries also forget that many of the health services they enjoy are due to the skills and expertise of migrant health care workers," added Grondin.
"Their mobility comes at a price for those left behind with little access to health care in countries with high disease burdens. It is high time to effectively manage the mobility of health care workers to ensure quality health care is available for all."
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