The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | UNHCR , UNITED NATIONS
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing: Refugee Health Workers COVID-19 Latin America - UNHCR
Refugee health workers step up for coronavirus response in Latin America
As an increase COVID-19 cases mount pressure on already over-stretched health systems in Latin America, countries across the region are planning to rely on refugee and migrant health workers to support their national responses to COVID-19.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is supporting efforts that tap into the skills and resources that refugee medics can provide.
“Several countries in the region are now putting in place special measures. These authorize the hiring of foreign-qualified health professionals and technicians, including those awaiting licensing or whose certification is yet to be validated by host countries,” said Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at a press briefing in Geneva . “Other states have adopted expedited recognition processes to fast-track their inclusion in national health responses”.
Across Latin America, thousands of refugees are already working with national health systems in the pandemic response, while many more stand ready to give back to the communities sheltering them.
Peru has now authorized the hiring of foreign certified health professionals -- of any nationality -- to support the COVID-19 response. Argentina and Chile have approved the hiring of health professionals whose qualifications have not yet been validated by national authorities.
“With a number of refugees studying medicine on government-supported scholarships in Cuba, refugee students in their third year of medical school or above are now also able to join the emergency response”, UNHCR’s Shabia Mantoo said. “In Brazil, Cuban doctors have also been exceptionally authorized to work on national health responses across the country”.
In Colombia, the Ministry of Health is collaborating with the Association of Health Professionals to draw in Venezuelan health workers.
“Networks of foreign health professionals are also being formed across the region to offer their knowledge and experience in support of their host countries,” Ms. Mantoo said. “Through its contact with refugee and asylum seeker communities, UNHCR is aware of thousands of forcibly displaced health workers who have expressed their willingness to work alongside their peers in the COVID-19 response” she added.
UNHCR has been supporting refugee inclusion efforts to help with the Covid-19 response in Latin America and around the world. In Mexico, UNHCR works with federal authorities to establish an expedited mechanism for the recognition of qualified and experienced refugee and asylum seeker health workers to join the country’s emergency recruitment pool.
“Latin America has shown deep generosity in the face of an unprecedented forced displacement crisis in Venezuela that has impacted nearly every country in the region”, UNHCR’s Shabia Mantoo said. “The coronavirus pandemic is now compounding an already desperate situation for many refugees and their hosts”.
The UN Refugee Agency continues to advocate for the inclusion of refugees in national health systems, in the belief that this will help not only to protect the rights of refugees but will also serve to protect public health by halting the global spread of COVID-19.
- Wide shot: exterior, Place des Nations, Geneva, with Geneva lake
- SOUNDBITE (EN) – Shabia Mantoo, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “Several countries in the region are now putting in place special measures. These authorize the hiring of foreign-qualified health professionals and technicians, including those who are awaiting licensing or whose certification is yet to be validated by host countries. Other states have adopted expedited recognition processes to fast-track their inclusion in national health responses”.
- Wide shot: UN Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Shabia Mantoo, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “With a number of refugees studying medicine on government-supported scholarships in Cuba, refugee students in their third year of medical school or above are now also able to join the emergency response. In Brazil, Cuban doctors have also been exceptionally authorized to work on national health responses across the country”.
- Wide shot: UN Place de Nations with broken chair
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Shabia Mantoo, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “Networks of foreign health professionals are also being formed across the region to offer their knowledge and support and experience for their host countries. Through its contact with refugee and asylum seeker communities, UNHCR is aware of thousands of forcibly displaced health workers who are expressing their willingness to work alongside their peers in the COVID-19 response”.
- Zoom out: UN building, Entrance Pregny
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Shabia Mantoo, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “Latin America has shown deep generosity in the face of an unprecedented forced displacement crisis in Venezuela that has impacted nearly every country in the region. The coronavirus pandemic is now compounding an already desperate situation for many refugees and their hosts”.
- Wide shot: UN Place de Nations with broken chair
- Wide shot: UN Place de Nations with broken chair
Similar Stories
2
1
1
Statements , Conferences , Edited News | HRC , OCHA , UNOG
A record 383 aid workers were killed last year with hundreds more wounded, kidnapped and detained, the UN’s top aid official said on Tuesday in a call for accountability, at a solemn ceremony in Geneva to mark World Humanitarian Day.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan made the following statement at today’s biweekly press briefing in Geneva:
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“In Gaza, the Israeli army has intensified its attacks in the north of the strip,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told the biweekly press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , OCHA
Gaza: Aid insufficient to avert ‘widespread starvation’ as Israeli military ramp-up forces more people to flee
The small trickle of aid entering Gaza is totally insufficient to alleviate starvation and displacement in the Strip, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Hospitals continue to overflow with people injured while seeking food - WHO
As besieged Palestinian civilians face widespread malnutrition and starvation, hospitals in the Strip are increasingly overwhelmed by the influx of victims of shootings and other injuries at food distribution areas, warns the World Health Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , WHO , UNMAS
Urgent help is needed to halt a deadly cholera outbreak that is sweeping across Sudan, UN agencies said on Friday, while warning that communities continue to be terrorized by parties to the conflict even as they flee violence.
2
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News , Images | UNEP
Negotiations got under way at UN Geneva on Tuesday to agree on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution, with delegates from nearly 180 countries attending.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
Gaza: Hundreds of trucks per day of free aid needed “for months”, in addition to commercial supplies - OCHA
Despite the tactical pauses Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered Gaza remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and UN trucks continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
Aid agencies echoed wider warnings of growing signs of widespread starvation in Gaza on Tuesday, as UN-partnered international food security experts released their most dire assessment yet of the situation in the wartorn enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNDP , UNHCR
Sudan: urgent help needed as more than 1.3 million war-displaced people begin to return home
As conflict rages on across parts of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged in the past four month, spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to make their way home, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A further 320,000 cross-border refugees have come back to Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, to assess the current situation before deciding to return to their country for good.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.