Health and health needs of migrants in detention in Greece: shedding light to an unknown reality
- PDF / 1,090,995 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 32 Downloads / 155 Views
(2019) 15:4
RESEARCH
Open Access
Health and health needs of migrants in detention in Greece: shedding light to an unknown reality Kyriakos Souliotis1,2* , Maria Saridi1, Konstantina Banou1, Christina Golna3, Dimitrios Paraskevis4, Angelos Hatzakis4 and Alyna Smith5
Abstract Background: Population movements have been increasing over the past years in Europe due to socioeconomic factors, global turbulence and conflicts, especially in the area of Middle East. The presence of migrant populations in Europe challenges health systems due to increased requirements for health care provision. However, to date there is limited published data on the burden of disease among this population (in Greece and elsewhere). Our objective was to record burden of disease of undocumented migrants hosted in a Detention Center and therefore generate data for migrant and public health planning. Methods: Epidemiological data have been collected for 4756 male migrants hosted in a Detention Center from mid 2013 to mid 2015. Of them, 1427 have used health services in the Center, which maintained a detailed record of their medical history and tests. Results: The majority of the study population was aged between 18 and 40 years old. Among those who used health services, most suffered from respiratory (45.6%) and digestive (30.1%) diseases. Injury, poisoning and other external causes accounted for 19.6% of service use, diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue for 18.7%, and factors affecting health status and contact with health services for 16.7%. Prevalence of communicable diseases was 15.9% amongst migrants randomly tested. Conclusion: Systematic screening and monitoring of diseases and use of health services by migrants in detention centers allows for an evidence based understanding of the burden of disease related to these populations and the investment required to effectively manage it, thus providing critical input to appropriate health planning. Surveillance for communicable diseases amongst migrants in detention centers would also allow for a true picture of the impact of their presence on public health indicators and help address related prejudices and stigma. Keywords: Migrants, Public health, Detention centres, Screening, Surveillance
Background Global conflict, poverty and economic inequalities have led to a dramatic increase in the numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees worldwide. Europe due to its geographic location at the cross-road of three continents has been a target host continent, receiving over 1 million refugees or migrants/immigrants via the Mediterranean in * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece 2 Health Policy Institute, Athens, Greece Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
2015. Almost a third of them were children according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [1, 2]. About 1.2 million applied for asylum in European Union (EU) countries in 2015, more than twice the
Data Loading...
