Médecins du Monde is sounding the alarm. According to a report published on Tuesday 15 November, access to healthcare further deteriorated in Europe last year for national residents, EU and third country migrants alike. This international network has therefore addressed a number of recommendations to political decision-makers.
The report is based on medical and social data from 10,447 patients. The data was collected in 2015, from 12 countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey), including nine member states.
Overall, it demonstrates that the majority people who visited a Médecins du Monde (MdM) health centre or one run by its partners in 2015 lived below the poverty threshold (94.2%) and did not have health cover (68%). Patients were mainly foreign nationals (94.2%), 24.7% of whom came from another EU member state and 50.6% had a legal residency permit. The report includes a specific chapter on vulnerable people, such as pregnant women and children. It subsequently illustrates how more than 40% of pregnant women did not have access to prenatal care before their visit and that 35.8% of them in European countries and 41.5% in Turkey said that they did not have an emergency contact. The survey also shows that around one third of children consulted had not been vaccinated (tetanus, Hepatitis B, measles and whooping cough). The MdM report also provides a special section on Turkey and violence. It indicates that 12.8% of patients interviewed have experienced violence, with the highest proportion in Turkey.
During a press conference, MdM representatives called on European leaders to provide accessible and appropriate healthcare, for pregnant women, and to examine possible ways of safe and legal immigration and appropriate reception conditions that would help asylum seekers approach the countries of their choice. They also called on decision-makers to make a commitment to providing more places under the relocation mechanism, greater collaboration between the different stakeholders and an end to the detention of children.
Cecilia Wikström MEP (ALDE, Sweden), in charge of reform of the Dublin system at the European Parliament, also widely criticised the crisis management of European leaders and said that migrants accounted for barely 0.2-0.3% of the EU population and that the crisis affected those having to flee not us. “We have to put a stop to rhetoric and exaggeration”, she exclaimed. She also said that countries that failed to meet their obligations should be sanctioned, as was the case with economic policy. When asked about her intention to include a provision that would enable asylum seekers to address the country of their choice, in her report, she answered, ”I am going to take that into account but not in the way that you propose. You’re not going to like it but I hope that you will understand why I proposed it”.
The report can be consulted here: https://doktersvandewereld-wieni.netdnassl.com/sites/ http://www.doktersvandewereld.be/files/page/attachments/rapport_observatoire_2016_mdm_international.pdf . (Sophie Petitjean)