Public Health Aspects of Refugee Health: A Review of the Evidence on Health Status for Refugees Globally
Abstract:
Introduction: Asylum seekers and refugees are
identified as those who did not make voluntary choice to leave their origin
country and cannot return home safely. Internally displaced persons and refuges
are extremely vulnerable to human rights abuses, especially the absence and
denial of mental and physical health care. For more than 50years, the
fundamental framework of refugee protection has been established and accepted
globally. The lack of respect to human rights of refugees and failure to
provide adequate humanitarian help such as health care. The Geneva Conventions,
the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, Statute of the office of the United
nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Convention Relating to the Status
of Stateless Persons, all establish international standards for private and
governments organizations that set guidelines for assimilation and repatriation
of refugees that create international standards.
Methods:
The study was conducted through a systematic literature review of articles
dating between 2001 and 2015 on Embase, PsychInfo, Medline and Cochrane
Controlled Trials, UNHCR, IOM and World Health Organization databases. The
study decided on the articles to review by reading abstracts to determine
inclusion of data about the health status of either the internally displaced
person or the refugees. The abstracts were selected randomly and independently.
A limited random search of the
reference lists of all included studies was also undertaken. And also few
English language studies of evaluated primary health care models of care for
refugees in developed countries of resettlement were included.
Results:
The internally displaced people’s and refugees are extremely vulnerable to
human rights abuses From the research, it is clear that across the globe,
access of primary healthcare amongst the refugees is overwhelmingly shaped by
the regulations of the migration process and legal frameworks of individual
states and nations. The study discusses that there is a primary need for
advanced communication with refugees and coordination of activities between
agencies either public or private within and beyond the health care structure. The
study seeks to unveil the channels that create the neglect of refugees’ right
to a chance of survival. The study recommends that improved data are imperative
towards supporting inter-sectorial work in addressing health care needs of
refugees.
Keywords:
Refugee health, public health, migration health, healthcare, global
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