Country work

WHO/Europe is working to strengthen the capacity of countries’ public health services to deal with large influxes of migrants. It conducts assessment missions in the Member States that are receiving or may receive large undocumented populations to coordinate the health response to migration by identifying best practices and potential gaps in the public health sector before establishing contingency plans.

WHO/Europe aims to support the work of policy-makers, health planners, local health professionals and others who are responsible for providing quality health care to migrants. It works to develop expertise and capacity and to identify and fill potential gaps in health-service delivery, including those for the prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and management of disease.

Migration affects the whole WHO European Region, so a coordinated effort is needed. Despite their differences, countries can share best practices and develop policy dialogues to build expertise and capacity on migration and health.

Assessment missions

WHO/Europe, in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), developed the first toolkit for assessing health system capacity to manage large arrivals of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants . It has been implemented in Member States to examine health system preparedness and has provided policy advice to better address the health needs of migrants.