Pre-migration health activities (PMHA) are one of IOM’s most well-established migration management services and are delivered through IOM’s Global Migration Health Assessment Programme (HAP). PMHA are an array of procedures that are undertaken in the context of regular migration at the request of receiving country governments.

Restrictions on international travel, in-country movement limitations imposed by host governments, temporary cessation of visa application centers, and general safety considerations have resulted in the temporary suspension of many IOM's routine pre-migration health activities at the instruction of host governments or the recommendations of United Nations Resident Coordinators.

IOM has provided migration health assessment services at the request of receiving country governments since 1951. Vaccinations within migration health assessments are provided for refugees and migrants both routinely and in response to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs).

In 2019, the Migration Health Division (MHD) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) expanded its migration health support, coordination, and operational services across the humanitarian-development nexus, worldwide. In line with IOM’s strategic priorities, as well as public health and human rights principles, MHD’s work assists governments worldwide in the management of the health-related aspects of migration, as well as in emergencies, including public health emergencies. It promotes evidence-based policies and practices, with multisectoral and international engagement.

Refugee resettlement is a highly complex process that may hold lessons for the larger realm of migration medicine. As more and more people are displaced by war, climate change, political strife, and economic disparities, migration medicine is becoming an increasingly important component of travel medicine. A recent partnership between the International Organization for Migration/United Nations Agency for Migration (IOM), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Minnesota (UMN), and other Minnesota-based organizations has evolved to address the medical needs

South Asia, home to around a quarter of the world’s population and 40% of the world’s poor, is being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The global response to the pandemic has focused mainly on containment of the contagion and “flattening the curve” through testing and strict social distancing, but these universal approaches fail to take account of resource limitations in countries in South Asia and ignore the realities of vulnerable populations, such as low-income migrants, internally displaced people (IDP) and refugees.