Lack of health services affecting migrants badly world-wide: IOM

There are more than one billion migrants worldwide, out of which 214 million are international migrants; both badly affected due to lack of access to health services. According to a recently issued report of International Organisation for Migrants every country in the world is either dependent on the labour, skills and knowledge migrants bring with them or the heavy amount of remittances sent back home by these workers.
Yet lack of adequate access to health services for migrants in most countries was identified as a worrying public health omission requires urgent redress in a world increasingly dependent on human mobility. Lack of affordable health services or health insurance, administrative hurdles, legal status and the fact that migrants often work extremely long and unsocial hours, were cited to be among their key barriers. Undocumented migrants are often at risk from violence, exploitation, poor living and unsafe working conditions. Due to their irregular legal status they are the most vulnerable among the migrant groups, said the IOM report.