Setting the scene: migration in the WHO European Region

The Health Research Group, the Center for Policy Studies and
the Department of Health Economics, Corvinus University

 invite you to a presentation

Setting the scene:
migration in the WHO European Region 

 Dr. Zsofia Pusztai,
Director, World Health Organization, Hungary office

Around 77 million international migrants are estimated to live in the European Region, which amount to around 8% of the total European population and one third of all international migrants worldwide. Only in 2015, over 1 million refugees and migrants entered the European Region, in addition to the more of 2.5 million living already in Turkey by the end of the year. While migration has multiple positive societal effects, including economic and employment benefits, the recent large-scale population movement from countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and African regions has given rise to a number of challenges, to which public health and health systems must adjust. Adequate standards of care for refugees and migrants are important for population health and fundamental to protecting and promoting their human rights as well as those of host communities.

In 2012, the WHO Regional Office for Europe established the Public Health Aspects of Migration in Europe (PHAME) project to assist Member States in adequately responding to the public health challenges emerging from migration and to protect the health of refugees and migrants and of the host population. Since then, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has conducted several public health and health-system assessment missions jointly with Ministries of Health to analyse and upgrade the response of countries to large-scale migration in Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Serbia and Spain. Technical assistance was scaled-up in response to the sharp increase of arrivals in 2015. In this regard, the WHO Regional Office is supporting European countries by providing technical and on-site assistance and policy advice, delivering training on public health and migration for professionals within and outside the health sector, providing medical supplies or producing public information materials. Upon request of the Ministries of Health, WHO is currently developing a European strategy and action plan on refugee and migrant health in consultation with national health professionals and international stakeholders. The strategy and action plan will be submitted for discussion and approval along with a resolution to the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in September 2016. 

For more information please contact Loblova_Olga@phd.ceu.edu