UN Bureaucrats Urge G20 Leaders to Provide Vaccines for Migrants
For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.
Top UN bureaucrats including Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees; António Vitorino, IOM Director General; and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General have written an open letter to G20 leaders with an appeal to make vaccines accessible to people on the move.
“We are writing to you on behalf of the millions around the world struggling to survive the Covid-19 pandemic far from home. Some have been forced to flee wars, conflict, persecution and human rights violations. Others are on the move to escape socio-economic hardship or the consequences of climate change,” they said in their letter released on October 29.
As strangers far from home, they add, many are at risk of exclusion or neglect. Owing to their living situation, many face barriers accessing vaccinations, testing, treatment, care, and even reliable information. It is a stark reality that some of the world’s poorest countries shoulder the greatest responsibility for supporting displaced people and other people on the move.
They need a reliable and adequate supply of vaccines and other critical supplies to stabilize their fragile and over-burdened health systems, to help save the lives of their citizens, migrants, as well as refugees and other displaced people they host.
Yet the current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.
Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like Covid-19. “We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery,” the UN officials said in their open letter.
And while vaccines are a very powerful tool, they’re not the only tool. Tests are needed to know where the virus is, treatments including dexamethasone and medical oxygen are needed to save lives, and tailored public health measures are needed to prevent transmission.
As the leaders of the world’s largest economies, you have the power and responsibility to help stem the pandemic by expanding access to vaccines and other tools for the people and places where these are in short supply.
In their letter, the UN officials urged G20 heads to take swift action to ease the pandemic’s devastating human toll.
