© Olivier Papegnies
Migrating people experience a range of situations once they arrive in Europe. They sometimes end up living in conditions of extreme vulnerability and poverty.
The teams who develop “outreach” actions and offer support in our centres have long spoken out about the deterioration in the health of migrating people.
Demanding and sometimes traumatic migration journeys are often coupled with undignified reception facilities when they arrive in France.
From Calais to Briançon, from the French-British border to the French-Italian border, taking in the north-east of Paris, people survive in camps and in the underbelly of cities, repeatedly expelled from their precarious homes. Their daily lives are marked by a blatant lack of access to water and food, and by ever-growing barriers to accessing care.
People who present at our 15 reception, healthcare and orientation centres (CASOs) situated throughout the country are mostly foreigners and are often late in seeking healthcare. They know very little about their rights and the complex procedures involved in accessing the French healthcare system, particularly the State medical assistance regime (AME), for those who do not have a residence permit.
Living in the streets and in camps damages people. We continue to remind the authorities of their responsibilities in terms of housing, including by going as far as appealing to the administrative courts in order to insist that the State rehouse people.
The right to residence, in terms of access to rights, is a powerful determinant of health.
Advocacy initiatives are developed within a coalition of NGOs including La Cimade, the Secours Catholique, MSF, and Amnesty International, in collaboration with our regional offices which are particularly involved in border issues.
© Eric Franceschi
In Montgenèvre, on the French-Italian border, border crossings are becoming increasingly dangerous.
This joint project aims to combat the violations of rights at internal borders which migrating people and refugees experience. Through citizen mobilisation and volunteers from our five organisations, we monitor the authorities’ practices on the borders, undertake advocacy work and file legal actions against illegal refoulement.
Between 2020 and 2022, we worked to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission on migration within the French National Assembly.
As part of this, MdM was called to respond to questions on health.
HEARING AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY - 7 JULY 2021
Médecins du Monde actively participated in drafting the thematic notes forming the “Migrations – pour la protection des droits fondamentaux” collection.
The Médecins du Monde teams worked on broad health issues (“Santé des personnes migrantes : pour un accès effectif et immédiat”) but also descried the issues around border crossings in order to make various recommendations to the public authorities.
This report was published during a seminar organised by the five organisations on 2 December 2021 at the National Assembly.
DEFENDING THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF MIGRATING PEOPLE AND REFUGEES AT INTERNAL BORDERS
Round Table specifically on health issues.
Nearly half of those migrating in the world are children. Some of them are alone, travelling without their parents. These are referred to as “unaccompanied minors” or “isolated minors”. Due to their age and their isolation, these children are particularly vulnerable and are over-exposed to numerous risks. Although legal texts set out measures for the compulsory protection of unaccompanied minors, in reality, these children face numerous obstacles to being protected.
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS
In France, 2022 was a year which was marked by presidential and legislative elections. We took advantage of this to lobby candidates for policies which were more favourable to accessing healthcare for migrating people in France, and to put an end to indecent living conditions.
One of our policy demands is around access to healthcare for people seeking asylum, for whom a three-month waiting period was imposed before they were able to access public healthcare, at the end of 2019.
We made a short educational video / motion design to denounce this decision, which was taken without any consideration for the health of individuals or the public, and to request its repeal.
