Access of Migrants to Health Services in Balkan Countries
Joint project of IFRC, HLMDI and WHO Collaborating Centre for Migration Health Training and Research at University of Pécs Medical School
Analytic project review
Cooperation with academic community is one of the priorities for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Year after year we actively develop our cooperation, which allows us to use evidence-based approaches in providing effective humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable population affected by different disasters and crisis.
I highly appreciate our close and fruitful collaboration with Healthcare Leadership and Management Development Institute and WHO Collaborating Centre for Migration Health Training and Research in Pecs University. The scientific teams of these centers are well known in the expert community not only in Europe but also around the world. Researches and studies conducting by professionals of these centers provide a valuable contribution for better understanding of the various aspects of the health of migrants.
Recent research: “Access of Migrants to Health Services in Balkan Countries” conducted in close collaboration with our partners: Red Cross societies in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia allowed to obtain a realistic picture on the health status and health needs of the migrants, refugees and asylum seekers stranded in four countries of the Western Balkans, as well as the practice our national societies as well as international, governmental and nongovernmental organizations active in humanitarian assistance provision.
I wish the team of these centers all success, new creative ideas and projects, and confident in the development of our further cooperation.
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Dr. Davron Mukhamadiev, MD., Dr.Sc
Regional Health and Care Coordinator
Europe Region, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The Hungarian Ministry of Health and the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer supported – as solely EU government- the DG SANCO co-funded joint project of International Organization for Migration (IOM) and University of Pécs project: Increasing Public Health Safety alongside the New EU Eastern Borders. (The project has been developed and successfully submitted to the EC for funding by Professor Szilard – that time IOM official -who is coordinating now the University of Pécs migration health programs) The 36 months project has assessed more than 60 border-crossing points in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia and about 2200 border-guard passed a KAP survey (Knowledge, attitude and practice). The 36 month project was ending in June 2010.
The EUPHA’s 3rd Conference on Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health in Europe was held by University of Pecs Medical School between 27-29 May 2010. The main objective of the Conference was to provide forum for researchers, academic people, health policy makers, activists and members of migrant organizations to discuss current results of researches, exchange experiences and case studies, highlight existing inequalities and introduce best practices on the scope of the conference target population’s health: migrants and ethnic minorities.
CHANCE: MSc in Migrant Health: Addressing New Challenges in Europe. At present there is significant shortage of formal higher education programs in Europe aiming to build the human resource capacity that will address the new challenge: the rapidly growing migration and its health aspects. The project’s main objective is to develop and implement EU level Master degree training program serving the human resource capacity building of specially trained health and social care professionals in Migration Health. This facilitates the successful integration of migrants into the community and the labour market. This curriculum will train new professionals for a field of activities that at present is suffering with shortage but one can well foresee the rapidly growing need. With this the program already on mid term will visible contribute to the migrant workforce related economic stability of the EU.
Our University is the first Hungarian University which successfully applied for an ERASMUS Lifelong Learning Curriculum Development Program as a consortium leader (MSc in Migrant Health: Addressing New Challenges in Europe, CHANCE) in 2010. The 6 consortium members: Danube University Krems, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Medizinische Universität Graz, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald and last but not least University of East Anglia and associated partner: EURIPA (European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association) work together on this remarkable project. University of Pecs for challenging the CHANCE project has reached the award „Partner in Europe – ERASMUS Curriculum Development Program”, which is unique in Hungary.
Within the frame of the EU Commission granted PROMOVAX project (Promoting Migrants’ Vaccination among Migrant Populations in Europe) that is coordinated by the Greek PROLEPSIS Institute, ‘Migrant vaccination – best practices in the EU’ workshop will be organized and hosted by University of Pécs/ Hungary on 27 – 28 April 2011. With this EU level workshop, as a corner stone of the 36 month project, aims providing a forum for experts where an overview of European best practices in migrant vaccination will be presented, discussed and evaluated for further recommendations and harmonized actions. This event is fully coordinated with the Hungarian State Secretary for Health, the National Center of Epidemiology, WHO EURO and ECDC. The scientific event could be considered as a first follow up of the Hungarian EU Presidency conference: "For a Healthy Future of Our Children - Childhood Immunization" and will be recognized also as official scientific event of the EU Hungarian Presidency period. The event will also contribute to WHO: European Immunization Week’s programs.
ARECHIVIC: Assisting and reintegrating children victims of trafficking: promotion and evaluation of best practices in source and destination countries. University of Pecs has an ongoing, EC JLS co-financed project with the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) that is a non-partisan, independent Bulgarian organization fostering the reform process in Bulgaria through impact on policy and civil society. The project will aim to promote the development of effective child trafficking response in the EU by envigorating efforts in the field of implementing victim assistance policies and programmes in source and destination countries, and by ensuring sustainable reintegration in society of children victims of trafficking.
HEALTH MANAGEMENT: "Design-Accreditation-Delivery of Joint Training and Development Courses assisting Sustainable Management of Regional Healthcare Services" (including joint training and exchange of experts), funding by Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013. It is common interest of the Hungarian - Croatian regional cross-border cooperation to develop a coordinated policy and launch joint actions on the field of health care and its human resource capacity building that is capable facing with both challenges: Croatia’s accession process and Hungary’s task as new Schengen country. Regarding to this we aim to develop a joint training program focusing on three main fields: Health management within the frame of the European Union, Needs for and conditions of trans-border healthcare in the region and Health/ public health and mental health aspects of the assistance of disadvantaged groups like ethnic minorities and migrants.