Bojorquez Ietza, Cubillos-Novella Andres, Arroyo-Laguna Juan, Martinez-Juarez Luis Alberto, Sedas Ana Cristina, Franco-Suarez Oscar, Suárez-Morales Zuly, Adame-Avilés Edith, Barragán-León Marcela, Suarez Angela, Orcutt Miriam, Spiegel Paul
Departamento de Estudios de Población, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Km. 18.5 Carretera Escénica Tijuana-Ensenada, Tijuana, Baja California, CP 22560, Mexico.
Instituto de Salud Pública, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cra 7 No. 40-62, Bogotá, Colombia.
Lancet Reg Health Am. 2024 May 14;40:100763. doi: 10.1016/j.lana.2024.100763. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Protecting the health of migrants and refugees during the pandemic was a significant challenge in the Latin American region. We aimed to describe and contrast the response of the health systems of Mexico, Colombia and Perú to migrants' and refugees' health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to situate the response in the context of the migration and health policies of each country.
We conducted case studies of the three countries. The data collected for each case included: 1) policy documents; 2) peer-reviewed and grey literature; 3) qualitative interviews with key informants.
The three countries issued policies to detect COVID-19 cases among migrants and refugees, and granted them access to COVID-19 care regardless of their migration status or facilitated regularization as a way to improve access to care. However, other health care needs were not considered, some groups of migrants remained invisible in the policies, and policies rarely considered the increased social and economic vulnerability of migrants and refugees during this period. Pre-existing barriers to care were made worse during the pandemic. All three countries' response to migrants was reliant on non-governmental organizations, with international cooperation being especially active in Colombia, and local civil society organizations in Mexico.
The response of each country was a continuation of their previous approach to migration and health. Developing plans for pandemic response that consider migrants and refugees' particular needs will be important to improve response capacities in the future.
Funding was provided by USA for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) under an agreement with the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.
在疫情期间保护移民和难民的健康是拉丁美洲地区面临的一项重大挑战。我们旨在描述和对比墨西哥、哥伦比亚和秘鲁的卫生系统在新冠疫情期间对移民和难民健康需求的应对情况，并将这种应对置于每个国家的移民与卫生政策背景下。
我们对这三个国家进行了案例研究。为每个案例收集的数据包括：1）政策文件；2）同行评审文献和灰色文献；3）对关键信息提供者的定性访谈。
这三个国家发布了在移民和难民中检测新冠病例的政策，无论其移民身份如何，都给予他们获得新冠护理的机会，或通过便利的正规化措施来改善获得护理的途径。然而，其他医疗需求未被考虑，一些移民群体在政策中仍然被忽视，而且政策很少考虑到这一时期移民和难民社会经济脆弱性的增加。疫情期间，先前存在的医疗障碍变得更加严重。所有三个国家对移民的应对都依赖于非政府组织，国际合作在哥伦比亚尤为活跃，在墨西哥则是当地民间社会组织。
每个国家的应对措施是其先前移民与卫生政策的延续。制定考虑到移民和难民特殊需求的疫情应对计划，对未来提高应对能力至关重要。
根据与约翰霍普金斯大学人道主义健康中心的协议，美国为国际移民组织（IOM）提供了资金。
