ITALY - To denounce the undocumented migrants patients

Press release - Italy allows doctors to denounce their patients if they are undocumented migrants.

For Medicos del Mundo, access to healthcare is the fundamental right of everyone living in a State, regardless of their administrative situation. The organization considers such a decision a withdrawal of this fundamental right and notes that it is a growing trend in other European Union countries, with Greece and Germany having already put similar measures in place. The result is that public authorities are legally obliged to denounce undocumented migrants.

 

Under no circumstances should immigration policies interfere with access to healthcare. “If you are an undocumented migrant and there’s a possibility of your GP denouncing you, you will simply be too scared to go to the health centre,” says Teresa González, president of Médicos del Mundo, who understands that the direct consequence of this type of regulation will be people’s failure to seek medical assistance, which will have serious implications for public health in general.

 

Moreover, this type of regulation imperils the duty of health workers to maintain confidentiality, something which is widely recognized internationally.
Through its various delegations, Médicos del Mundo cares for thousands of undocumented migrants in Europe. And it is concerned to witness the general withdrawal of the right to access to healthcare which is occurring. In some countries, migrants have to pay to receive help, even in emergencies or childbirth, as is happening in Sweden and Austria.

In other countries, only partial cover is available and is dependent on administrative procedures and requirements which are either highly complicated or impossible to fulfil, making effective access to healthcare very difficult.

 

For this reason, Médicos del Mundo has started up the HUMA network (Averroes project), consisting of non-governmental health organizations in Europe. Its basic objective is to improve access to healthcare and fight to ensure that undocumented migrants without financial resources have, as a minimum, the same rights as nationals in the same situation.

The HUMA network was born with the aim that European Union countries and institutions should ensure the right to access to healthcare through complementary compulsory rules which protect the most vulnerable, such asAverroes network was born with the aim that European Union countries and institutions should ensure the right to access to healthcare through complementary compulsory rules which protect the most vulnerable, such as undocumented migrants.

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