Training and education

The collaboration between the center and the WHO Regional Office for Europe also focuses on capacity building. Specifically, supporting WHO in building the capacity of healthcare providers and other stakeholder on refugee and migrant health.

The purpose of these activities will be to build capacity to promote refugee and migrant health, taking pedagogical methods and WHO policies into account.

Training course on health in immigration detention and the use of alternatives to detention

The right to health must be protected for all, regardless of status. A report recently published by WHO/Europe, in collaboration with Uppsala University, finds that immigration detention can have a severe impact on migrants' health, especially mental health, during and after release from detention. Over the last few years, immigration detention has increasingly been used as a tool to manage migration flows in the WHO European Region.

To address the severe health impacts of immigration detention, WHO/Europe, together with its Collaborating Centre on Migration and Health Data and Evidence at Uppsala University, held a 2-day in-person training course in May at Uppsala University.

The aim of the training course was to:

• present evidence on the health status of refugees and migrants in immigration detention within the Region and immigration detention’s severe health impact;
• discuss successful approaches in mitigating poor health in immigration detention; and
• discuss the potential and best practices of alternatives to detention.

The course was attended by representatives from selected countries in the WHO European region and other partners.