COVID-19: Marking the Gaps in Migrant and Refugee Health in Some Massive Migration Areas

Stephen A. Matlin, Ozge Karadag, Claudio R. Brando, Pedro Góis, Selma Karabey, Md. Mobarak Hossain Khan, Shadi Saleh, Amirhossein Takian and Luciano Saso
Additional contact information
Stephen A. Matlin: Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Ozge Karadag: Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10115, USA
Claudio R. Brando: Education and International Relations Office, Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogotá 11001, Colombia
Pedro Góis: Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal
Selma Karabey: Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Fatih, Istanbul 34093, Turkey
Md. Mobarak Hossain Khan: Department of Social Relations, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, East West University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Shadi Saleh: Global Health Institute, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon
Amirhossein Takian: Health Equity Research Center (HERC) and Department of Global Health & Public Policy, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1417613151, Iran
Luciano Saso: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: The health of migrants and refugees, which has long been a cause for concern, has come under greatly increased pressure in the last decade. Against a background where the world has witnessed the largest numbers of migrants in history, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched the capacities of countries and of aid, health and relief organizations, from global to local levels, to meet the human rights and pressing needs of migrants and refugees for access to health care and to public health measures needed to protect them from the pandemic. The overview in this article of the situation in examples of middle-income countries that have hosted mass migration in recent years has drawn on information from summaries presented in an M8 Alliance Expert Meeting, from peer-reviewed literature and from reports from international agencies concerned with the status and health of migrants and refugees. The multi-factor approach developed here draws on perspectives from structural factors (including rights, governance, policies and practices), health determinants (including economic, environmental, social and political, as well as migration itself as a determinant) and the human security framework (defined as “freedom from want and fear and freedom to live in dignity” and incorporating the interactive dimensions of health, food, environmental, economic, personal, community and political security). These integrate as a multi-component ‘ecological perspective’ to examine the legal status, health rights and access to health care and other services of migrants and refugees, to mark gap areas and to consider the implications for improving health security both for them and for the communities in countries in which they reside or through which they transit.

Keywords: COVID-19; migrant and refugee health; massive migration; health framework; structural factors; health determinants; human security; health gaps; sustainable development goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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