Health, migration and law: what challenges?

Abstract

The reality of migration today is that a large majority of migrants in vulnerable situations either do not have access, or have only very restricted access, to healthcare. While the current importance of the migratory phenomenon and the need to provide protection to disadvantaged migrants has, in recent years, triggered a strong response from the international community in favour of the protection of the rights of persons, either refugees or migrants, fleeing their countries of origin; the central challenge of protecting and promoting the right of migrants to health seems as difficult to as ever. This article firstly sets out the international community's recent political commitments to protect the human rights of migrants as well as the norms of international law applicable to the protection of the health of migrants, mainly contained within international human rights law and international refugee and migrant law. It then discusses the numerous barriers at the national level which block migrants, particularly in vulnerable situations, from accessing care. In doing so, this article highlights the profound paradoxes between State's international commitments on the one hand, and State practices to protect and promote migrant access to healthcare on the other.