EN-HERA Network, Ghent Seminar, 21-22 November 2008

The event, hosted by the International Centre for Reproductive Health of Ghent University, offered participants the opportunity to meet with the European partners of the network and to discuss with all the stakeholders present the most effective way of promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Europe and beyond.

A welcome speech by a representative from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees gave the participants an overview of the current global strategies in place to address the challenge of protecting the sexual and reproductive health for refugees. A brief summary of the legislation at international, European and National levels revealed that there is legislation in place guaranteeing basic human rights for refugees and providing for access to social welfare and healthcare. Nevertheless, it was stressed that there is still a need for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants to be included in the thought process when it comes to policy making.

The session then proceeded with a number of presentations from organisations working specifically on the issue of sexual and reproduction health.

A Kenyan doctor who is now living and working in Greece spoke on her experience as both a doctor and an immigrant. Greece is a country often used by migrants in transit, and this means creating legislation that caters for their needs is often hard. Many of the migrants resident in Greece are undocumented and this has implications for their willingness to make use of healthcare facilities as they fear being detected. She also underlined the cultural factors that have a negative impact on the sexual and reproductive health of migrants and asylum seekers, such as the fact that many femal migrants don’t work and are therefore much less integrated and have not experienced language immersion.

A representative from the International Planned Parenthood Federation spoke of their role as a global voice safeguarding sexual and reproductive health. The IPPF has a five-stage strategy that it is implementing to help bring the issue to the policy agenda. The strategy involves securing international commitments to improve the rights of migrants and refugees, raising awareness of the right to health, and monitoring the impact of their work. By acting as a framework for advocacy, it is hoped that it will be possible to achieve significant policy changes on a global level.

Continuing on the theme of advocacy and campaigning, speakers from the Irish Refugee Council and a Netherlands-based public health consultant discussed best practice examples and encouraged the setting-up of joint advocacy initiatives. It was noted that a major limitation to advocacy in this field is the fact that sexual and reproductive health of migrants is often a very low priority, especially in the New Member States. In order to bring the issue to the policy agenda, networking must be a priority. At policy level, political opportunities should be identified, such as the European bodies and civil society forums. It must also be recognised that sexual and reproductive health is a diverse topic, and there are areas such as HIV/AIDS where some joint action could be coordinated.

Eve Gedes was invited to present the PICUM project. The project addressed the issue of access to healthcare for undocumented women in Europe. Some of the problems that the report highlights include using healthcare as a migration control. France and the UK have recently increased controls limiting access to healtchare for migrants. Five distinct situations were identified, ranging from systems such as the Spanish one where healthcare is made widely-available, to the situation in Austria and Sweden where healthcare is provided on an upfront payment-basis only.

On the second day of the seminar, participants who had joined the network gathered once more to discuss the mission statement of the network and to explore the possibility of expanding the network and finding further funding. EPHA was keen to participate in the process as it recognises that HIV/AIDS and sexual health had been mentioned as a priority for the Commission in 2009, and felt it was important to become more involved with the main stakeholders working on the issue.