IOM Rallies African Govts on Protecting Health Rights of Migrant Workers

The International Organisation for Migration-IOM has urged African governments to review and include access to health services for their migrant workers in bilateral labour agreements.

This was one of the recommendations made on the first day of the IOM "Regional Workshop on Identifying Opportunities for Migrant Worker Health Inclusion into Labour Migration Governance in East and Horn of Africa".

The two day workshop opened today at Lake Victoria Hotel, Entebbe. The participants are drawn from the ten countries in the region.

IOM estimates that the East and Horn of Africa region hosts over 400 million people including asylum seekers and internally displaced persons. Since 2016, close to six million people from the region have departed for work abroad, particularly Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar.

Sanusi Tejan Savage, the Chief of Mission IOM Uganda says the workshop aims at bringing officials together to gain a better understanding of international migration law and how various principles can be applied to enhance inclusion of migrant workers and their families' health into the bilateral labour migration agreements and national health initiatives.

He said  migrants, especially the undocumented and irregular ones, are often excluded from national programmes for health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, and care. "They also face high user fees, low levels of health literacy, poor cultural competency among health providers, stigma. So there is need to explore feasibility of accessing social security safety nets...and enable migrant workers to seek medical services."

Dr. Fatuma Ahmed, the Consultant on Gender and Social Protection for the IOM's Better Regional Migration Management Project, says female migrant workers abroad are doubly disadvantaged because  they are discriminated as females and as migrants.

Dr. Ahmed says female migrant workers face health risks and human rights violations such as trauma, depression, forced HIV test, sexual violence and abuse,  long working hours  and limited or no rest even during menstruation and pregnancy. They are also lack access to health services.

She adds that most of the migrant workers persevere brutality, inhuman treatment and poor working conditions because they have several responsibilities back home and also fear deportation.

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She explains that the well being of female migrant workers is determined by the interplay between social and medical health factors, the migration experience, gender roles, expectation and power relations.

"Using a gender perspective enables us to develop a better understanding of the determinants of health and the impact of migration on women and girls in order to inform practices and policies aimed at optimizing their health and well being," says Dr. Ahmed.

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She is now urging government officials, recruitment agencies, communities and other stakeholders to advance for observance and protection of health rights of the migrant workers.

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Participants from Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia agree with Dr. Ahmed on the need for governments to advance for health rights for migrant workers within and outside the region.

Perez Auma Wabwire, Deputy Director Clinical Services Ministry of Health International Health in Kenya, says female migrant workers in the country have difficulty in accessing health services due to lack of information on the cost, when and where to access the services, cultural and language barriers, high cost of specialised care, age differences where patients undermine young medics and also having few women in key decision making positions.

Celina Grace Peter, the Director for Child Welfare at the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare for South Sudan says the officials in the region must ensure running  bilateral labour agreements are reviewed so that they are updated and cover more human rights protections for migrant workers.

Abu Magoba Kassim, a Clinical Psychologist at Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital says a poor health seeking attitude, not involving men in women matters, lack of super specialists such as two gynaecologists at each Regional referral hospital which serve an average of 40 districts, language barrier and poor communication especially for medics who do not know how to communicate with persons with disabilities are some of the things hindering female migrant workers' health inclusion in labour migration governance in Uganda.

Dez Atwebembeire, the Assistant Commissioner Human Resource Management at the Ministry of Health, says migrant workers are mainly based in Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area  and says these workers, just like nationals and other migrants, access health services at all levels because Uganda is not discriminatory. "The only thing is that some of these facilities charge highly for these services," says Atwebembeire.

Bolly Odette, the IOM Ugandan Programme Manager Labour Mobility and Human Development, is optimistic that officials from the region will come up with joint solutions  for challenges among the migrant workers and also joint monitoring of implementation of the bilateral labour agreements with the destination countries.

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