Health of migrants and other vulnerable populations across Asian countries: Build Forward Better beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Azusa Iwamoto; Masami Fujita; Dang Quang Luong; Jongsoh Anh; Betty Ya-Wen Chiu; Jaewook Choi; Hung-Yi Chiou; Reiko Hayashi; Jun Kobayashi

doi:10.1186/s41182-023-00543-7

Health of migrants and other vulnerable populations across Asian countries: Build Forward Better beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Trop Med Health. 2023 Sep 11;51(1):51. doi: 10.1186/s41182-023-00543-7.

Authors

Azusa Iwamoto¹, Masami Fujita², Dang Quang Luong³, Jongsoh Anh⁴, Betty Ya-Wen Chiu⁵, Jaewook Choi⁶, Hung-Yi Chiou⁷, Reiko Hayashi⁸, Jun Kobayashi⁹

Affiliations

¹ Bureau of International Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1, Toyama, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, 162-8655, Japan. iwamoto@it.ncgm.go.jp.
² Bureau of International Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1, Toyama, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, 162-8655, Japan.
³ Personnel Department, General Office for Population and Family Planning, Ministry of Health, Secretariat of Migrant Health Working Group, Hanoi, Vietnam.
⁴ Humanitarian Development and Migrant Health Team, Global Cooperation Center, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare, Soul, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Centre for Global Health and Security, Department of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University, Soul, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.
⁸ National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Tokyo, Japan.
⁹ Graduate School of Health Sciences, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan.

Abstract

Global migration has been increasing since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has clearly shown a lack of preparedness for the next public health emergency when it comes to vulnerable populations including migrants. To include the issues of migration and health in the current global health agenda, it is important to establish/strengthen a network for collaboration among various stakeholders from both the migrant-sending and host countries of migrants especially in the Asian-Pacific region. As the initial step for networking in Asia, in March 2023, a hybrid style international symposium was held in Japan and agreed on a goal and five pillars: surveillance and monitoring, risk communications, community engagement, access to health and social protection services, and supportive environments. Considering the transition of context from the COVID-19 crisis to 'Build Forward Better', through the Asian network, we will envisage the better world, where vulnerable populations including migrants will not be left behind from health security.

Keywords: Asia; Health security; Integration; Migration and health; Network; Public health emergency; Vulnerable populations.

Publication types

Letter