UNHCR, Nov 19, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to include refugees and displaced people in national health plans, the Assistant High Commissioner for Operations of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, told an online forum yesterday, urging greater support for countries to achieve it.
“We all know the principle of leave no one behind and it is clear that the inclusive national policies and services will contribute towards achieving universal health coverage for all,” said Raouf Mazou.
Addressing a session in the High Commissioner’s Dialogue focused on Resilience and Inclusion in Health, Mazou said that at least 85 per cent of refugees and displaced people are hosted in developing countries. He noted that this put pressure on health systems even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck this year.
“It is not only refugees who benefit.”
“What we have also heard from many of the representatives of government who joined us today is the willingness of a number of states to better include refugees into national health services,” he said, adding that states require support to achieve this.
“It is not only refugees who benefit from comprehensive responses … refugee-hosting countries themselves can benefit from inclusive approaches,” he said. Host countries can benefit from development funding for both refugees and hosts and from the skills and labour that refugees can contribute to society.
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