Migrant Health at the Borders in Times of COVID-19: Assessing Gaps, Needs and Priorities in the Implementation of Human Rights-based Health Policies and Programs in the Andean Region of Latin America.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Knipper
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: from 2021 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468252559

The main objective of this research proposal is to advance knowledge on practical applications of human rights-based approaches to health for highly vulnerable people during the COVID-19-pandemic in the Global South: migrants of multiple types (refugees, displaced persons, undocumented migrants, and others). The regional focus is on border areas of the Andean countries Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, in close cooperation with local researchers, civil society and multilateral organization, namely the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO, Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Americas).The elevated vulnerability of refugees and migrants for the health and socio-economic impact of the pandemic has been widely documented. Latin America is among the regions with the highest burden of the pandemic globally. In the Andean region, this coincides with one of the biggest refugee crises in the world: over five million people fled violence, oppression and hunger in Venezuela in recent years. Colombia alone is host to about 1.7 million people from Venezuela, yet also Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile are affected. The specific goal of the project is to develop a comparative approach for analyzing the implementation of human-rights-based approaches to migrants’ health on the level of policy, practice and local impact, with a particular focus on border zones in the Andean Region of Latin America. Border regions are hotspots of migration dynamics and thus areas where both the challenges and the experiences by local actors (municipalities, civil society, migrant groups) of dealing with this situation are particularly apparent, yet specific research is scarce. At the same time, initiatives for international cooperation among the Andean countries have been established, supported by international agencies like PAHO. By multi-method approach, that combines policy analysis with field work (case studies in selected border regions), the following question regarding the implementation-gap of human-rights-based approaches to health are addressed: How are existing human-rights-based policies and programs implemented, on regional, national and local level, and what is the impact of the pandemic on policies and practices? What initiatives are ruled out in the border regions, how do they relate to human-right based policies and standards, and what is the impact of the pandemic on these initiatives? Do previous experiences with human-rights-based approaches in the field inform the Covd-19 response, both in regard to the general population and to migrants? What are, finally, the local experiences, perceived gaps and impact of and with human-rights-based approaches to migrant health in times of the pandemic in selected sites at the borders in the Andean region. The major output of the research will consist in academic publications (with Lancet Migration), as well as policy briefs for local, national, and multilateral institutions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Miriam Orcutt; Professor Dr. Stefan Peters
• International Co-Applicants: Professor Juan Arroyo, Ph.D.; Dr. Carlos Arósquipa; Professorin Báltica Cabieses, Ph.D.; Professor Andrés Cubillos Novella, Ph.D.; Astrid Osorio; Irene Torres, Ph.D.