The journal PLOS Medicine will be publishing a Special Issue on Refugee and Migrant Health in March 2020. This special issue seeks to raise awareness of the health threats faced by migrants and refugees and to promote research, service, and policy innovation in this area.
The guest editors are: Dr Paul Spiegel, Director of the Center for Humanitarian Health, Johns Hopkins University, USA; Dr Kolitha Wickramage, Global Health Research and Epidemiology Coordinator,UN Migration Agency, Switzerland; and Ms Terry McGovern, Professor, Population and Family Health, Columbia University School of Public Health, USA.
Data from the World Health Organization reveal the extent of the problem. From 2000-2017, the number of international migrants is estimated to have risen by 49%, to 258 million people, with the number of forcibly displaced people at an estimated 68.5 million individuals, including 25.4 million refugees. No government or international agency can offer adequate protection or health provision to this virtual state of refugees and migrants. The majority are hosted in low- and middle-income countries. Further, approximately 10 million stateless people lack basic human rights to freedom of movement, education and health care. Scattered across the planet, such enormous numbers of people dwarf the individual populations of many countries yet, all too often, no government or international agency can offer adequate protection or health provision to this virtual state of refugees and migrants.
At the 72nd World Health Assembly on May 20–28 2019, a very welcome global action plan was agreed which seeks to establish a “framework of priorities and guiding principles… to promote the health of refugees and migrants”.
Submissions in the following areas are especially welcome:
- Health of migrants and refugees in low-, middle- and high-income countries
- Planning and provision of health services for migrants and refugees in diverse settings
- Health systems, including infrastructure, workforce and clinical practice
- Financing mechanisms and funding for migrant and refugee health
- Leadership and governance of humanitarian programs
- Human rights, health and migration.
It would be excellent if papers were submitted on the lack of access to safe abortion care and how such care might be provided, as well as papers on other aspects of SRHR services, and how to address abuses of sexual and reproductive rights.
Submit your manuscript here by 4 October 2019.
SOURCE: PLOS Blogs + PHOTO: Felton Davis, Flickr, 15 July 2019