COVID-19, Migrants, Refugees, Mobile Workers: Global Assessment and Action Agenda

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected millions of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and stateless persons as well as IDPs worldwide. At the same time, the dependence of economies and societies on migrant and refugee labour to perform essential work in such sectors as healthcare, transportation, services, agriculture, food production and distribution, construction, industry, commerce, and others became even more obvious. However, many policies and actions addressing COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic were established with little or no consideration for migrants and refugees, resulting in excessive COVID cases, high mortality rates, unemployment, and loss of livelihood across migrant and refugee populations. The paper argues that a comprehensive and rights-based package of measures is needed for effective response to the pandemic, relevant and proportionate to prevent the spread of coronavirus and allowing for people and economies to sustain socio-economic development on local, national, and regional levels. Based on in-depth review and critical analysis of literature as well as synthesis of approaches and recommendations contained in guidance documents from international organisations, the paper provides policy lines and actions/action steps on COVID-19 and migrants and refugees. It covers the interrelated issues of health and healthcare including vaccination; non-discrimination and inclusion; social protection; employment; community support and protection; gender; refugee specific measures; cross-border mobility; data, narrative, and communications; and recovery. Only a comprehensive package of measures that includes migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons and IDPs in national and local COVID-19 responses can possibly solve challenges posed by the pandemic in our global, mobile, interconnected and interdependent world.