Your Excellency Minister Asselborn;
Your Excellency Minister Aceng;
Your Excellency Ambassador Portilla;
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, it’s a pleasure to be here.
I thank Luxembourg and Colombia for hosting this important discussion, together our partners at IFRC, IOM, UNHCR and the UN Foundation.
One in every eight people on our planet is either a refugee or a migrant – and I am one of them.
More and more people are on the move every day, driven by conflict, climate change, drought, famine, poverty, and global health emergencies – and the hope of better work opportunities and a better life for themselves and their families.
Migrants and refugees have the same right to health as anyone else.
But they often suffer from poor health and have difficulty accessing services due to discrimination, poor living conditions, and financial, linguistic and cultural barriers.
In July this year, WHO published the first world report on the health of refugees and migrants, providing a comprehensive overview of their health status, and highlighting good practices to safeguard their health.
The report calls on governments and partners to take collective actions to promote and protect the health of refugees and migrants:
By addressing the root causes of disease, many of which lie outside the health domain;
By reorienting health systems to include integrated and inclusive health services and programmes for refugees and migrants;
By raising public awareness about the health of refugees and migrant health;
And by promoting high quality research and information and building capacity to support evidence-informed policies and actions in health and migration.
WHO is committed to working together with all Member States and partners to implement these actions.
Health for all means all, regardless of a person’s legal status or origin.
Protecting and promoting the health of those who have been displaced from their homes and communities is not a burden, it’s a responsibility for all of us.
I thank you.