This issue of the Bulletin features reports, reviews, and studies on relevant migration and migration health topics such as medical diaspora, unaccompanied minors, health information systems management, and migrants’ immunization coverage.
The audio podcast episode centres on international migration and the health of unaccompanied minors.
IOM’s COVID-19 programming contributes to the WHO’s Global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan as well as the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan. IOM’s programming is developed to be responsive to population mobility and cross-border dynamics while adopting an inclusive approach towards all travellers and migrants - regardless of their migratory status - and countering misinformation which can lead to anti-migrant sentiment and xenophobia. This approach is anchored in IOM’s Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) Framework.
The IHR (2005) are the only international legal framework for PoE. They are an agreement between 196 countries to work towards enhancing global health security through a multisectoral approach which includes a broad range of stakeholders. The aim is “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade”.
The IHR (2005) are the only international legal framework for PoE. They are an agreement between 196 countries to work towards enhancing global health security through a multisectoral approach which includes a broad range of stakeholders. The aim is “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade”.
This report is an annual overview of activities led and implemented by the Migration Health Division of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2020, in partnership with Member States, United Nations agencies and other partners in the international community, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, meet the operational challenges and advance understanding of migration health, encourage socioeconomic development through migration, and work towards ensuring respect of the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
The Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) Framework articulates IOM’s strategic role and objectives in the prevention, detection, and response to communicable diseases in the context of widespread and multi-directional human mobility. It provides an action framework for IOM to undertake activities related to health, border, and mobility management and serves as a reference for the IOM Member States and partners to understand the Organization’s role and contributions in this area of work.
The editorial argues that failure to integrate migration variables within the health information systems in many countries in the MENA region means that, to date, there has been an absence of comprehensive and disaggregated epidemiological data on infectious disease prevalence (including COVID-19), outbreaks, and vaccine coverage, making it difficult to map health disparities and inform evidence-based policy and service delivery.
The year 2020 was a landmark for human mobility, with dramatically reduced cross-border movements of all kinds. The COVID-19 pandemic decimated tourism and business travel; severely curtailed labour migration; and dampened movement of all stripes, from that of international students to family reunification. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been tracking the surge in travel restrictions, border closures and health-related travel requirements imposed by governments since the onset of the pandemic.
This assessment tool is to support municipalities and local authorities in identifying the risks and vulnerabilities that refugees and migrants face and to identify gaps where possible methods to minimize the impact of the pandemic exist so that they can be prioritized within local policy processes.
This guidance advises countries how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 resulting from travel, transportation, and trade on and around ground crossings by:
1. Identifying priority ground crossings and communities;
2. Scaling up preparedness and control measures at these locations.
