EUPHA Granada Declaration

We, the undersigned, meeting together at the 5th EUPHA European Conference on Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health held at the Andalusian School of Public Health (Spain), on the 9th to 12th April 2014, hereby endorse the following statement:

When many European countries are implementing austerity policies, it is especially important that the public health community should speak out on behalf of the poor and marginalised. Among them are many migrants, who for various reasons are especially vulnerable at this time.

• First, austerity policies mean that many people, migrants and non-migrants, are facing a worsening of their already poor conditions, with damaging consequences for their mental health and wellbeing. As migrants frequently take the jobs that no-one else is willing to perform, involving poorly paid, precarious, and often dangerous employment, they are especially vulnerable.
• Second, those who are already vulnerable suffer most from cuts in health and social services. Among them are many migrants, who may have unmet mental and physical health needs as a consequence of conditions prior to, during, and after migration and now face worsening access to services.
• Third, a few countries have used the economic crisis to reduce entitlement to health and social services, in some cases specifically targeting undocumented migrants, with obvious implications for their health.
• Fourth, in some countries increasingly harsh restrictions on undocumented migrants, including long periods of detention in sub-standard facilities pose a serious threat to their physical and mental health.
• Fifth, in some countries we are seeing the rise of xenophobia, leading to discrimination and violence against migrants and ethnic minorities of long standing, especially the Roma, affecting their health and accentuating the barriers they face in obtaining appropriate health care.

We call on all European governments to take concrete steps to protect the health of migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe and, specifically, to demonstrate that they will live up to their obligations under the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights and the European Social Charter to ensure the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and in particular to their obligation of refraining from denying or limiting equal access to healthcare for all persons, including undocumented migrants and minorities, highlighted in the General Comment No. 14 of the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, so as to recognise the contribution that everyone, including migrants and ethnic minorities, make to the social and economic development of Europe.

Granada, 12th April, 2014
Carlos Artundo Purroy President of the Organising Committee Allan Krasnik President of the International Scientific Committee María Luisa Vázquez Deputy President of the International Scientific Committee

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