Summary

The review protocol is in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2009), and is essentially an update of the protocol (Hintermeier et al., 2020) of a previously published review on the topic (Hintermeier et al., 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in certain populations, which may include refugees and migrants. These populations may face a range of individual, social, and practical or logistical barriers to uptake of COVID-19 vaccines that contribute to shaping their vaccination behaviours. To date these populations have shown lower rates of COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the few countries where this has been measured.

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. 

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.

As COVID-19 vaccine roll-out begins in the MENA region, ensuring migrant populations have equitable access to the vaccine, designing innovative and specific mechanisms for vaccine roll-out in these areas, and monitoring vaccine uptake in migrant groups are now imminent challenges.

This issue of the Bulletin features research articles, reports, and commentary pieces on relevant migration health topics such as reproductive health, mental health, and COVID-19 in the context of mobility.

The audio podcast episode focuses on women refugees’ access to maternal health services in Kenya.

In this systematic review we are trying to answer these specific questions: What is the immunisation coverage among migrant populations in North Africa for key vaccines, and are there variations among migrant subpopulations? Where and by who are vaccines administered to migrant populations? What are the key delivery mechanisms (IOM, NGOs, government structures)? What are the barriers and facilitators to migrant populations accessing vaccines in this region?

This issue of the Bulletin features peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, reports, and commentaries focusing on some of IOM’s migration health programmes such as mental health and psychosocial support, vaccination, tuberculosis screening, and public health emergency management.

Two interviews are included in the current episode of the audio podcast: one on the vaccination programme for US-bound refugees globally and the other on migration health governance in Africa.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) there are about 1 billion international and internal migrants worldwide, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that 80 million migrants are forcibly displaced. Inclusion of these populations in COVID-19 vaccination plans is essential.