The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in many countries has forced public officials to make uncomfortable decisions about which residents gets priority treatment. In some cases, migrants have been easy to exclude.

Colombian President Iván Duque has pledged not to administer the vaccine to the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in his country who are without residence permits. “Our priority will always be Colombian citizens,” Duque said on a radio station in December. The comments echo a sentiment from the governor of the U.S. state of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, who said his state will prioritize citizens and legal residents before unauthorized immigrants.

Showdowns over vaccine rollout remain rare, but could be on the rise in coming months as more doses are manufactured and harder prioritization decisions beyond medical workers and emergency responders need to be made. One challenge is that immigrants, including the unauthorized, are often among the groups that are disproportionately vulnerable to the virus, as many work in frontline industries such as agriculture and food processing.

The calls to deliver vaccinations to migrants and refugees have been widespread, particularly from global institutions and aid groups. “Access to health is a fundamental right, but too often still, those who need it the most—including migrants and forcibly displaced persons—are left out,” said António Vitorino, the director general of the International Organization for Migration. Public health experts point out that viruses ignore nationality, and communities are only as immune as their most vulnerable members.

Tragically, the calls come as the virus continues to affect many migrants and asylum seekers on their journeys or at destination. Dozens of shelters for U.S.-bound migrants in Mexico have scaled back operations in response to an uptick of COVID-19 infections, and data from Singapore last month found that nearly half its migrant workers had been infected with the novel coronavirus. Lockdowns and border closures related to the pandemic have had a massive ripple effect that will likely persist for months—if not years.

The global vaccines initiative COVAX has pledged to set aside approximately 5 percent of total available doses for humanitarian efforts, including vaccinating refugees. But the future is uncertain, particularly for refugees, the majority of whom are in low-income countries that have struggled to secure doses of the vaccine.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]