Migration and Health

In February 2021, the Colombian government launched the Temporary Protection Status (Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos, or ETPV), a legal mechanism which facilitates the transition of migrants from an emergency migratory regime to a regularization status, granting access to formal employment, education, healthcare, and financial services for almost two million Venezuelan migrants and refugees. 

OHCHR’s Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders are the result of wide-ranging expert consultations to draw up normative guidelines on the governance of international borders. They are intended to inform the work of States, international agencies and other stakeholders with an interest in human rights-based border governance. The Principles and Guidelines accompanied the report of the Secretary-General on Protection of Migrants (A/69/277) presented to the 69th session of the General Assembly held in 2014. 

The first World Report on the health of refugees and migrants, launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the framework of the WHO Health and Migration Programme, has been published in 2022. 

The first Global Action Plan addressing the health of refugees and migrants was adopted by WHO member states in 2019, to assert health as an essential component of refugee assistance and good migration governance. 

This Plan is instrumental in prioritising efforts to improve global health equity by addressing the physical and mental health and well-being of refugees and migrants worldwide and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals for these populations as well as the objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees.

The City of Zürich commits to improve access to all its municipal services with a special focus on vulnerable groups. Limited access can affect people with disabilities, older people, people experiencing poverty, refugees or migrants, for example. Among those, migrants with irregular status are particularly vulnerable. In this vein, Zurich commits to:

In Morocco, the National Health and Immigration Strategic Plan mandates that all migrants (documented or undocumented) have the right to access free or low-cost essential health care. This national framework is localized through regional policies like the Oriental Regional Health Strategy, which jointly provide the legal foundations for community well-being.

Thailand said it would allow undocumented migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to work in the country legally for about two years to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Migrants have to sign up online and be registered by an employer before mid-September in order to receive a work permit until February 2023, according to a resolution by the cabinet.

It contains practical guidance grounded in international labour and human rights standards and drawing from real examples around the world. It shows how social dialogue benefits the development, implementation and monitoring of these agreements, and can be used as a basis for training and preparing for negotiation of bilateral labour migration agreements.