HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON HEALTH AND MIGRATION IN THE WHO EUROPEAN REGION: jointly shaping the vision for the health of refugees and migrants
Istanbul, 17-18 March 2022
The WHO Collaborating Centre on Health and Migration Evidence and Capacity Building has attended the High-level meeting on health and migration in the WHO European Region, hosted by WHO/Europe and organized in a hybrid format (both online and in-person for invited participants) over 2 days.
The event, aimed to build a common vision in health and migration policy, strengthening existing collaborations and establishing new partnerships, has involved ministers and high-level government representatives from the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region, representatives of the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean regions and the European Commission, relevant United Nations agencies and pan-European nongovernmental organizations encouraging interregional and multi-sectorial collaboration as part of a whole-of-route approach.
The meeting hosted two distinct segments: a high-level policy segment on day 1 with thematic sessions on main challenges in ensuring universal health coverage in migrant’s health and a technical segment on day 2.
Day 2 featured six different parallel technical sessions linked to the European Programme of Work flagships for refugees and migrants and targeted to discuss common health issues in health and migration and share strategies and best-practice implemented in different national contexts. The following topics were discussed: managing the public health aspects of migration and displacement in the context of emergencies; shared interregional and cross-border issues as health checks and screening at points of entry; addressing the health challenges in immigration detention; mental health issues and promotion; improving immunization services; improving migration health governance through migration health data collection and data sharing.
The WHO CC on Health and Migration Evidence and Capacity Building was speaker in the parallel sessions on health checks and screening at points of entry and on improving migration health governance through migration health data collection and data sharing.
