Reflections on migrant and refugee health in Malaysia and the ASEAN region
Pocock et al. BMC Proceedings
Reflections on migrant and refugee health in Malaysia and the ASEAN region
Nicola S. Pocock 0
Rapeepong Suphanchaimat 2
Chee Khoon Chan 1
Erwin Martinez Faller 6
Nicholas Harrigan 5
Veena Pillai 4
Kolitha Wickramage 3
0 United Nations University International Institute of Global Health , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
1 Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Malaya , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
2 International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health , Nonthaburi , Thailand
3 Migration Health Division, International Organization for Migration, UN Migration Agency , Manila , Philippines
4 Dhi Consulting & Training , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
5 Department of Sociology, Macquarie University , Sydney , Australia
6 Migrant Workers Health Research Network, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Management & Science University , Shah Alam , Malaysia
Migrants and refugees face challenges accessing both healthcare and good social determinants of health in Malaysia. Participants at the “Migrant and Refugee Health in Malaysia workshop, Kuala Lumpur, 9-10 November 2017” scoped these challenges within the regional ASEAN context, identifying gaps in knowledge and practical steps forward to improve the evidence base in the Malaysia.
Migrant health; Refugee health
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From Migrant and Refugee Health in Malaysia and the ASEAN region
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 09-10 November 2017
Introduction
Globally, there were an estimated 258 million
international migrants in 2017, 80 million of whom resided
in Asia and 42% of whom were female [
1
]. There were
an estimated 150 million migrant workers worldwide in
2013 [
2
]. With accelerating population movement
worldwide, “migration is not a problem to be solved but
a reality to be managed” [
3
].
Malaysia hosts an estimated 4–6 million documented
and undocumented migrant workers mainly in
construction, agriculture, manufacturing and services and domestic
work [
4
]. Malaysia also hosts a registered refugee
population of 152,000 mainly from Myanmar [
5
], and is a
destination country for human trafficking.
To examine migrant health in this context, UNU-IIGH
organized a 2-day invitation-only workshop on Migrant
and Refugee Health in Malaysia on 9–10 November 2017.
Over 40 participants from industry, medical professions,
civil society and academia in Malaysia attended, including
regional speakers presenting case studies of migrant health
inclusion from Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health
(MOPH) and the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) as well as several NGO service providers in
Malaysia and Singapore. The workshop aimed to identify
gaps in knowledge and promising interventions or policies
to improve migrant and refugee health in Malaysia. In this
short report, we identify key lessons from the workshop
that can inform the direction of future research and
practice for migrant health in ASEAN.
Occupational and mental health needs
Occupational health and mental health needs among
migrant workers are many, with evidence severely lacking
in this area. High prevalence of workplace accidents
among migrant workers indicated a need for better
enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)
laws. Nepali migrants are the second largest group
among documented migrants in Malaysia after
Indonesians, with an estimated 566,184 present in the country
in June 2015 [
6
]. Nepali migrants have high death rates
in Malaysia, with an average of one worker dying a day
in recent years [
7
], which warrants further investigation.
Preliminary results from an ongoing study presented at
the workshop indicated that cardiovascular and suicide
cases were the leading fatalities reported to the Embassy
of Nepal in 2015. About 80% of deaths underwent
medically certified post-mortems, but questions remained
about the accuracy of causes of death information for
the more ambiguous categories.
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Asylum seekers and refugees had high prevalence of
common mental health disorders including depression,
anxiety and PTSD, linked to past trauma and particu (...truncated)