Cyprus: assessing health-system capacity to manage sudden large influxes of migrants (2015)

2015, vii + 19 pages
ISBN 978 92 890 5127 9

The Ministry of Health of Cyprus, the International Centre for Migration, Health and Development and the WHO Regional Office for Europe conducted a joint assessment mission in December 2014, to assess the capacity of Cyprus' health system to manage the acute phase of public health needs related to a potential sudden large influx of migrants and to identify possible ways forward. 

Cyprus took part in a massive evacuation of foreign citizens from Lebanon in 2006, but has received no major influxes of migrants in recent years. The crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic, however, has led to migrants arriving, albeit in small numbers, by sea. Thus, a sudden large arrival of migrants is a potential scenario that needs to be taken into account from the public health perspective. The assessment mission was conducted within the WHO Regional Office for Europe's project Public Heath Aspects of Migration in Europe (PHAME), which operates under the European policy framework, Health 2020.