Pandemic Worsened Everyday Hardships Migrants Face

14 Mar 2024

#Fem4PeoplesVaccine and the Women in Migration Network (WIMN) continue to shed light on the harsh realities migrants faced during the pandemic. Restricted access to healthcare, job insecurity, and racism/xenophobia are challenges migrants face every day. The pandemic worsened and widened existing gaps, leaving migrant communities more vulnerable. Migrant women, in particular, felt the intersectional and compounded impact of lockdown measures and exclusion from healthcare programs. Poorly planned and extreme movement restriction orders meant to curb the spread of the virus cut migrant women off from healthcare services in general, including sexual and reproductive healthcare services. Women in violent relationships were trapped with their abusers and cut off from crucial support services. Migrant women faced the loss of jobs, intensification of care work with children in remote schooling, xenophobia, and dangerous work as “essential workers”, all of which compounded health challenges.” As a #pandemictreaty is being negotiated at the World Health Organization, we must not lose sight of the grassroots issues. While high-level discussions take place on equity issues in the negotiations for the Pandemic Treaty, the struggles on the ground demand attention and planning. Together, let’s advocate for healthcare responses that prioritize migrants and the intersectional needs of migrant women to prevent inequalities from deepening.