European initiative to improve access to vaccination for newly arrived migrants

October 10, 2022

The difficult access to health and vaccination services is one of the major problems that migrants face upon their arrival in host countries. This situation further exacerbates the conditions of inequality for this already vulnerable population.

Ensuring equal access to vaccination and improving vaccination coverage for newly arrived migrants (NAMs) is the subject of a project involving public health institutions, ministries and universities, as well as non-governmental organizations. The Increased Access to Vaccination for Newly Arrived Migrants (AcToVax4NAM) project aims to improve the vaccination coverage for vaccine-preventable diseases that are part of the Member States' National Vaccination Programmes, including vaccination against COVID-19, by adopting a life-course approach.

The project is co-funded by the European Union’s Third Health Programme (2014-2020), has a threeyear duration (2021-2024) and involves ten partners from eight European countries.

During the first year of the project, the partners collected standardized information on the migrant reception systems and vaccination offers for NAMs in all consortium countries. Moreover, they have identified the main system barriers to vaccination for NAMs reported in literature, some of them being legal, economic, organizational, psycho-social and cultural/linguistic. In addition, from the literature, the partners have also identified possible solutions for improving vaccine uptake. Finally, a General Conceptual Framework was developed, representing the entire vaccination process, that will facilitate the identification of barriers and possible solutions to effectively achieve immunization and its completion in each country.

In the coming months, AcToVax4NAM partners will develop vaccination literacy and training tools aimed at improving professionals FOR health knowledge in order to increase vaccination coverage for NAMs. An important objective of this project is also to strengthen the collaboration and network among health workers and staff working in shelters in host countries.

Finally, specific action plans will be developed for each country to improve access to vaccination. The plans will include potential barriers, proposed solutions and relevant tools, tailored to each country’s situation.

The following organizations are participating in the project: Prolepsis Institute (Project Coordinator) – Greece; Istituto Superiore di Sanita – Italy; Sapienza Università degli Studi di Roma – Italy; Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) – Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca – Spain; Center for Social Innovation – Cyprus; Directorate of Operational Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies, Ministry of Health – Greece; Ethno-Medical Centre – Germany; Ministry of Health, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit – Malta; National Institute of Public Health NIH, National Research Institute – Poland; Fundatia Romtens – Romania.

For more information visit our AcToVax4NAM website at https://www.accesstovaccination4nam.eu/