The Benefits of Providing Care to All Migrants

By Lisa Dezauer, Social Platform Intern

On 14 October, I attended a meeting at the Committee of the Region about health and migration, and how health services can be provided to migrants, in particular for migrants in an irregular situation. A recent study from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights on the “cost of exclusion from healthcare – The case of migrants in an irregular situation” presented by Ludovica Banfi concludes that it saves more money to provide regular preventive care than only providing emergency care, also only “treating a condition only when it becomes an emergency not only endangers the health of a patient, but also results in a greater economic burden to health-care systems”.

Stakeholders shared their regional experiences on how to deal with the growing number of migrants in need of health services. Cultural, language and lack of trust were named as some of the main barriers in providing health care. To overcome those barriers, various projects have been carried out, such as building special hospitals or ambulances which is in service during the night to provide care to homeless people and migrants. Some argued that one should rather use existing health care mechanisms as a resource and make them more inclusive than establishing new projects and mechanisms. Others claimed that special projects can be the first step in providing health care services and fight barriers. In order for existing health care mechanisms to work as a long-term approach, they need to be changed to be more inclusive for migrants and other vulnerable groups.

Ms Roumyana Benedict from European Region Migration Health Division highlighted that due to lack of medical trained staff, basic health care cannot be provided as it should, which is where civil society organisations step in. This is not a sustainable solution, which needs to be addressed.

Health as the very basis of human well-being should be provided regardless of a person’s status or situation. Health care systems are responsible to ensure medical services and treatment to everybody and therefore need to take all possible measures to make it accessible.

Read also our blog article on this issue.