health

• France

Since October, aid organization Samusocial de Paris has been offering COVID-19 vaccinations twice a week to homeless people, mainly migrants, at Porte de la Villette, in northern Paris. The organization has to face many challenges dealing with this mobile population with little access to the internet and which does not always speak French. InfoMigrants spoke with Maëlle Prioux, head of health projects at Samusocial and Samy Rasli, coordinator of public health actions at Samusocial.

• Cyprus

After more than 80 people tested positive for COVID-19 at the Pournara migrant camp, Cypriot health authorities have moved hundreds of migrants to another location. The living conditions at Pournara had been denounced by MPs after a visit last week.

• Greece

A non-governmental organization (NGO) in Greece, METAdrasi, has called on the government to make is easier for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers to get a Covid-19 vaccine, calling the current system problematic.

• Hungary
• Morocco
• Serbia

Jalal is a migrant from Morocco. He was traveling the Balkan route and made it over the border to Hungary before he was hit by a vehicle and suffered "terrible" injuries. Now in a camp in Serbia, he met with András Léderer from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and reporter Idro Seferi to tell his tale.

• Iraq
• Peru

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day on 10 October, UNHCR has appealed to the international community to promote quality mental health support for refugees, internally displaced and stateless people. It said a growing number of people are asking for help with anxiety and depression.

• Italy

The Region of Lazio announced the opening of two pediatric clinics in east Rome for foreigners with an STP (Temporarily Present Foreigners) card or an ENI card for EU citizens not signed up with Italy's national healthcare network.

• Lebanon

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has called for more global attention and funding support to counter the impact of COVID-19 on forcibly displaced people worldwide.

• Italy
• Libya

The Ocean Viking arrived in Sicily on Friday morning to disembark over 500 migrants it has on board. The crew and migrants had been waiting for a week to be assigned a safe port. Food and water were about to run out when they were assigned a port on Thursday evening.

• France

Undocumented workers who are victims of work-related accidents must take steps to ensure that they are taken care of and obtain compensation if required. InfoMigrants explains the necessary steps.

• France

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aims to get between 6,000 to 10,000 people vaccinated before the end of September. This week, the NGO launched a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in the Île-de-France region for the homeless and migrants.

• Italy
• Norway
• Spain

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), COVID-19 hit migrants the worst in Europe and this is the category that is now also the least vaccinated. Migrants especially in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden had higher rates of infection than the rest of the population, while in Italy and Spain they show a higher likelihood of needing to be hospitalized.

• France
• Germany
• Italy

Vaccinating migrants is, in the opinion of most authorities in Europe, an imperative. However, in many countries, the rhetoric clashes with the reality of undocumented migrants' lives on the ground. They find they sometimes have to run an obstacle course to get vaccinated.