About this Research Topic

Background

In 2001 the UN designated June 20 as World Refugee Day, in celebration of the strength and courage of all those who are forced to leave their country, facing war or persecution. For World Refugee Day 2023, the UN has chosen “Hope away from home” as a theme, to promote the right of refugees to seek safety, economic stability, and social inclusion. To honor this initiative, Frontiers in Public Health is launching a new article collection, focusing on the public health challenges faced by refugees and their host countries.

Millions of people are forcibly displaced every year. Once they reach their destination, often a low- or middle-income country facing its own challenges, refugees remain among the most vulnerable members of society. Crucially, the difficulties refugees encounter are not just economic and social, but also medical. Indeed, refugees are more likely to experience physical and mental health issues, while having less access to healthcare. This suggests their right to health is not being met; it also highlights health risks for the whole population, as the recent Covid-19 pandemic so vividly illustrates. To quote from the Report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region: “No Public Health without Refugee and Migrant Health”. This is a multifaceted problem of planetary scale calling for global solutions.

This collection welcomes articles on a variety of related topics, including, but not limited to:

• health issues affecting refugees before, during, and after their journey
• mental health issues faced by refugees and approaches to treating them
• strategies for public health education and promotion, as it concerns refugees specifically
• policies to increase refugees’ access to healthcare and tackle related public health emergencies
• strategies to address these issues, in terms of both prevention and treatment, at a national and/or global level.

Keywords: refugee health, forced displacement, migration, health inequalities, healthcare access, mental health, WHO, World Refugee Day 2023, public health

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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