Children on the Move: The Health of Refugee, Immigrant and Displaced Children

This Special Issue of Children will focus on the migration arc of children from their country of origin through the experience in refugee camps and, finally, to their arrival in in a new home. It will examine the impact experiencing migration as refugees, immigrants or those internally displaced due to war and conflict has on children’s health. Explored topics include adverse health conditions, trauma and mental health, best practice and care coordination. It explores specific populations, such as children with disabilities, unaccompanied minors and child separation at international borders. This Special Issue also includes an examination of new clinical guidelines, the development of new care systems and advocacy for new policies. It also provides a summary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’s specific mandate to provide for the most vulnerable children in need

How Syria’s neighbours and the European Union are handling the refugee crisis

The Syrian refugee crisis is shaping up to be the largest of its kind since the Second World War. Large numbers of Syrians are fleeing persecution and the gross violations of human rights that have characterized a civil war already raging for four years. The spillover effects are far-reaching and cannot be ignored by the international community. The present article plans to examine how the most affected countries are coping with the influx of refugees inside their borders. How does the European Union fare in comparison with Syria’s neighbours? Is the EU the best place for Syrian refugees

Health diplomacy: spotlight on refugees and migrants

Nowadays, refugees and migrants are the focus of intense political debate worldwide. From the public health perspective, population movement, including forced migration, is a complex phenomenon and is a high priority on the political and policy agenda of most WHO Member States. Health diplomacy and the health of refugees and migrants are intrinsically linked. Human mobility is relevant to all countries and creates important challenges in terms of both sustainable development and human rights, to ensure equality and achieve results through the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s commitment to work for the health of refugees and migrants. It showcases good practices by which governments, non-state actors and international and nongovernmental organizations attempt to address the complexity of migration, by strengthening health system responsiveness to refugee and migrant health matters, and by coordinating and developing foreign policy solutions to improve health at the global, regional, country and local levels

Pathogens, prejudice, and politics: the role of the global health community in the European refugee crisis.

Involuntary migration is a crucially important global challenge from an economic, social, and public health perspective. The number of displaced people reached an unprecedented level in 2015, at a total of 60 million worldwide, with more than 1 million crossing into Europe in the past year alone. Migrants and refugees are often perceived to carry a higher load of infectious diseases, despite no systematic association. We propose three important contributions that the global health community can make to help address infectious disease risks and global health inequalities worldwide, with a particular focus on the refugee crisis in Europe. First, policy decisions should be based on a sound evidence base regarding health risks and burdens to health systems, rather than prejudice or unfounded fears. Second, for incoming refugees, we must focus on building inclusive, cost-effective health services to promote collective health security. Finally, alongside protracted conflicts, widening of health and socioeconomic inequalities between high-income and lower-income countries should be acknowledged as major drivers for the global refugee crisis, and fully considered in planning long-term solutions

Contributing factors to gaps in vaccination coverage in conflict-affected populations

This review compiles trends in literature related to major factors contributing to low vaccination coverage for refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrants fleeing war and conflict zones. More specifically, this review considers populations fleeing conflict zones to internally displaced camps or refugee camps in neighboring countries or border zones, as well as the prevalence of underimmunization in asylum seekers. Given the rising displacement of persons throughout the world due to ongoing and emerging conflicts, the public health significance and need for effective, well-planned, and increased vaccination coverage to reduce vaccine-preventable disease transmission and outbreaks is extremely important. The methods used involved compiling peer-reviewed articles using a PubMed search. This was done within a literature search period from January 1st, 2002 to December 31st, 2017 and resulted in a review of twenty-six articles. The results of this review can be used to determine methods to identify barriers and major contributing factors to effective vaccination methods and strategies in conflict-affected populations. There is limited but developing research on the direct relation between conflict and vaccine-preventable diseases or infectious diseases. There are also few immediate policy or practice solutions formulated to address the destruction of healthcare infrastructure in conflict zones. Few policy measures in place, further jeopardizes the health of vulnerable populations. Further research is needed to assess gaps in vaccination coverage for emerging conflict zones and regions of the world because of limitations to this strategy, limitations to strategies already in place, and insufficient studies to address this topic

Vaccine uptake and COVID-19 frequency in pregnant syrian immigrant women

Immigrants have difficulties in the use of essential health services such as vaccinations. Vaccine uptake among pregnant immigrant women is very low. The aim of the study was to examine the vaccination status of pregnant immigrant women who received health services in an immigrant health center (IHC) affiliated to primary health care institutions. The research is a retrospective-designed cross-sectional type of study. The study sample consists of pregnant Syrian women who received health care from the strengthened IHC of a District Health Directorate in Istanbul between August 2020 and 2022. Age, trimesters, number of pregnancies, high-risk pregnancy status, vaccination dates and status against influenza, COVID-19 and tetanus, and vaccine types of COVID-19 were evaluated. The statistical significance level was determined as p < 0.05. None of the pregnant women had received the influenza vaccine. Of the women whose tetanus vaccine data were evaluated, 29.7% had received at least two doses of the tetanus vaccine. Of the pregnant women, 19.4% were vaccinated against COVID-19 with a minimum two doses and 4.2% had a COVID-19 infection during their pregnancy. None of the women with the COVID-19 infection were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The vaccine uptake of pregnant immigrant women is very low. Public health interventions are needed to improve vaccination coverage among disadvantaged groups