The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is one of the biggest external displacement crises in the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded an already desperate situation for many
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refugees and migrants, as well as their hosts, sorely testing health and social welfare systems and the ability of countries to assist the vulnerable population.
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an operational guide to support all those responsible for planning and implementing the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine to refugees
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and migrants at national and local levels, 14 March 2022
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This publication is a compendium of 49 country examples highlighting efforts in improving refugees’ and migrants’ health following the adoption
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of the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the health of refugees and migrants at the seventy-second World Health Assembly, in May 2019.
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As of June 2019, the number of Venezuelans leaving their country reached 4 million, with Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil hosting the vast majority of Venezuelans in Latin America. The end of the first half of the year was marked by the an
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nouncement of tighter immigration measures in Peru and Chile, which triggered a significant peak in flows from Venezuela entering Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In response to this, UNICEF Country Offices activated contingency measures and capacities for registration and provision of services were rapidly increased, in coordination with relevant authorities, to face the increased demand.
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Children in refugee situations face many potential dangers, such as violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination, separation from their families, trafficking and military recruitment. The impact of
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these experiences can be devastating and long-lasting. Children have different needs from adults and these needs can only be identified and met if they are approached in a way that is specific to children.
The impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic has exacerbated the dangers faced by children in refugee situations and laid bare the need for their protection and for ensuring that all their human rights are upheld all the time.
The goal of this publication is to share examples of approaches by members of the Initiative that have proven effective for children.
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The right to adequate housing, despite having been recognized by multiple international instruments, continues to be a human right that is consistently violated. Around 2O% of the world's population do not have adequate housing . In Latin America, informal settlements generally lack the conditions r
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equired to live a decent life, and local and national public policies fail to radically transform this situation.
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Preliminary overview of refugees and migrants self-reported impact of COVID-19
The study surveyed over 30,000
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refugees and migrants living in 170 countries. Many of the respondents had fled war or dire economic conditions in their home country only to be faced with the additional challenges posed by COVID-19. Travel restrictions including border closures, suspension of resettlement travel, and last-minute deportation left many stranded or forced to stay in cramped, makeshift shelters or detention centers. Amid these uncertain, precarious conditions, many migrants described either a lack of access to health services or a fear of seeking them out — even if they were experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
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What school closures under COVID-19 mean for children and young people in
crisis-affected contexts
This document outlines PAHO’s regional priorities for the year 2023 to sustain and scale up health emergency and humanitarian assistance in the A
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mericas, with a focus on five priority countries currently facing a prolonged humanitarian crisis and recovering from recent acute emergencies: Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). These goals align with and build on the World Health Organization’s Global Health Emergency Appeal for 2023, its principles, priorities, and strategies.
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The Handbook is a guide to the normative framework for humanitarian action and the operational approaches, coordination structures,
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and available tools and services that facilitate the mobilization of humanitarian assistance.
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Latin America and the Caribbean is characterized by a matrix of social inequality whose axes —such as
socioeconomic stratum, gender, stage in the life cycle, ethnicity and race, territory, disabi
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lity, and immigration
status— create multiple, often concurrent, situations of exclusion and discrimination. The coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated wide social gaps and it is no coincidence that Latin America
and the Caribbean is one of the regions in which the health and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic have
been the most severe, which shows that the costs of inequality are unsustainable
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WHO published the first COVID-19 Strategic Response and Preparedness Plan (SPRP) on 3 February, 2020. This report highlights the main points of progress that were made up to 30 June 2020 under the three objectives outlined in the SPRP: scaling up in
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ternational coordination and support; scaling up country preparedness and response by pillar; and accelerating research and innovation. The report also discusses some of the key challenges faced so far, and provides an update on the resource requirements for the next phase of WHO’s response as part of an unprecedented whole-of-UN approach to the pandemic.
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The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been facing a sociopolitical and economic situation that has negatively impacted social and health indicat
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ors. There have been intensified population movements both within the country and to other countries, particularly to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. Since 2017, an estimated 5.2 million Venezuelans have migrated to other countries, including an estimated 4.3 million who have gone to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
This report is based on interviews with more than 150 health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care who recently arrived in Colombia
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and Brazil, representatives from international and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations. In addition, researchers analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and civil society organizations.
We found a health system in utter collapse with increased levels of maternal and infant mortality; the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and increases in numbers of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Although the government stopped publishing official data on nutrition in 2007, research by Venezuelan organizations and universities documents high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, and available data shows high hospital admissions of malnourished children.
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New funding requirements: CHF 2.8 billion IFRC-wide of which CHF 670 million is channelled through the IFRC Emergency Appeal in support of National Societies
Every year, nearly 250 million people move across borders temporarily or permanently for a job opportunity, studying, to flee a crisis back home, or for other reasons. Another 750 million move
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for similar reasons within the borders of their countries. With the understanding that human mobility affects public health, and health affects human mobility and migrants, for decades, IOM has been providing critical health services to women, children and men on the move, while standing by governments for technical and operational support as needed. In 2019, in lower-income settings and in complex emergencies, along the world’s most perilous migration routes, in the aftermath of natural disasters or in response to disease outbreaks, IOM’s health teams have provided hundreds of thousands with primary health-care consultations, mental health and psychosocial support, sexual and reproductive health care, pre-migration health services, and much more.
This year, more than ever before, as the world reels from the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, we have experienced that health is a cross-cutting component of overall human development and well-being.
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This inter-agency guidance document aims to supplement the COVAX demand creation package for COVID-19 vaccines with key considerations for humanitarian contexts
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and marginalized populations with specific access and communication needs.
21 Sept.2021
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Continuing a worrying decade-long rising trend, the number of people forced to flee due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order climbed to 89.3 million by the end of 2021. This is more
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than double the 42.7 million people who remained forcibly displaced at the end of 2012 and represents a sharp 8 per cent increase of almost 7 million people in the span of just 12 months. As a result, above one per cent of the world’s population – or 1 in 88 people – were forcibly displaced at the end of 2021. This compares with 1 in 167 at the end of 2012. During 2021, some 1.7 million people crossed international borders seeking protection and 14.4 million new displacements within their countries were reported. This is a dramatic increase from the combined 11.2 million a year earlier.
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