ENGLISH VERSION FOLLOWS
La mobilità umana non è un’aberrazione né una crisi temporanea, è uno dei fenomeni più antichi della storia dell’umanità…
“Una madre rinuncia a far vaccinare il figlio perché in ospedale potrebbero chiederle i documenti. Un’infermiera fa un lungo turno di notte in un paese dove è considerata una minaccia. Un nonno raziona la sua insulina in un accampamento, lontano dalla casa da cui è fuggito. Queste sono le persone al centro di un dibattito che viene fatto a loro nome, e in loro assenza”. Comincia così l’ultimo editoriale della rivista medica e scientifica The Lancet.
La mobilità umana non è un’aberrazione né una crisi temporanea, è uno dei fenomeni più antichi della storia dell’umanità, è una caratteristica ineludibile dell’esistenza moderna, eppure viene considerata un problema eccezionale, un’emergenza che richiede misure straordinarie. E così quando si parla di migrazione il linguaggio è quello del controllo e dell’esclusione. Ma i migranti sono lavoratrici e contribuenti, infermieri e vicine di casa. Nel 2024 i migranti erano più di 300 milioni, un numero quasi raddoppiato dal 1990: se fossero una nazione sarebbero il quarto paese più popoloso del mondo.
The Lancet si concentra soprattutto sulla sanità e nota che in molti paesi sono proprio le persone migranti, cioè quelle dipinte di solito come una minaccia per la società, a lavorare negli ospedali e a prendersi cura degli anziani. Spesso sono le meno pagate, svolgono i compiti più rischiosi e hanno meno accesso alle stesse cure che forniscono agli altri.
Nel Regno Unito un lavoratore su cinque del servizio sanitario nazionale ha una nazionalità non britannica, percentuale che sale a oltre un terzo tra i medici. Con l’invecchiamento della popolazione, le società dipenderanno ancora di più proprio dalle persone che oggi cercano di escludere. Non sono opinioni, ma dati di fatto, ricorda The Lancet.
E che debbano ancora essere affermati dimostra quanto la paura prevalga sulle prove concrete. Una buona politica non può tornare indietro nel tempo, conclude la rivista. Può solo affrontare il mondo com’è oggi e come sarà domani: un mondo in cui la salute dei migranti e quella di tutti sono indivisibili.
internazionale.it/magazine/giovanni-de-mauro/2026/06/25/cura-
Migration: a reality, not an emergency, by Prof. Abubakar et al.
Summary
A mother skips her child’s vaccination because the clinic might ask for her papers. A nurse works a long night shift in a country that calls her a burden. A grandfather rations the last of his insulin in a camp far from the home he fled. These are people behind a debate conducted in their name—and in their absence. Migration is among the oldest facts of human life, yet it is treated as one of the newest emergencies: anti-immigration protests have intensified in the UK and immigration raids have swept US cities. As we mark World Refugee Day, the follow-up Review to the 2018 UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health, published in this issue, renews the Commission’s call for action and asks whether, in a climate shaped by fear, evidence can still drive policy.
The Review finds that migration and forced displacement continue to rise, driven by conflict, climate change, and economic instability. In 2024, more than 300 million people were international migrants, a number that has nearly doubled since 1990—were they one nation, they would be the fourth most populous country. Human mobility is not an aberration or temporary crisis; it is an ineluctable feature of modern existence, yet it is considered an exceptional problem demanding extraordinary measures. Progress in the Commission’s original recommendations has been slow and the scapegoating of refugees and migrants has intensified; a 2026 WHO review of its Global Action Plan similarly identified persistent weaknesses in migrant health policy, governance, and data systems. The gap between what the evidence shows and what governments do has only widened.
This gap reflects how profoundly the world has changed since 2018. A pandemic, wars, and the retreat of development aid have transformed the migration landscape—and the political response has hardened. The EU’s new Migration and Asylum Pact, which took effect on June 12, 2026, is Europe’s most substantial asylum overhaul in more than a decade. Human Rights Watch warns that it will weaken the right to asylum, curtail safeguards, and expand detention. As 2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, the contradiction is stark: even as governments affirm migrants’ rights in their declarations, their policies do the opposite, narrowing protections in practice. The health community now operates in a far more contested environment.
From calls to “stop the boats” to even harsher asylum policies, migration is framed in the language of control, deterrence, and exclusion. Yet migrants are workers and taxpayers, carers and neighbours. In many countries, the very people portrayed as burdens are those staffing hospitals and caring for ageing populations—often the worst paid, in the highest-risk jobs, and with the least access to the care they provide for others. In England, around one in five National Health Service staff report a non-British nationality, rising to more than a third among doctors. As workforces age, societies will depend even more on the people they are currently trying to exclude. These are not arguments to be won but facts already woven into how societies function. The fact that they must still be defended shows how much fear sets the terms above evidence.
The COVID–19 pandemic showed that, with political will, migrant-inclusive policy is not only possible but effective. Governments expanded access to health care, vaccination, and legal protection. For example, Colombia regularised undocumented Venezuelan migrants, enabling access to COVID-19 vaccinations and care, while several European countries fast-tracked recognition of foreign health-care qualifications to shore up overstretched systems. At the height of the crisis, governments briefly grasped that protecting migrants was essential to protecting everyone. The question is not whether migrant-inclusive policies can work, but whether governments have the will to pursue them.
As more people are on the move, they cannot be left out of health-system planning. The Review’s renewed call is clear: embed health in every migration and displacement policy, strengthen data systems and support research, and confront the political determinants of who is protected and who is not. The health community must keep making the case for equity, inclusion, and the right to health—but in a debate ruled by fear, how it is made matters as much as the case itself. That will take courage and leadership. Good policy cannot turn back the clock; it can only meet the world as it is, and as it will be—one in which the health of migrants and the health of all are indivisible.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01240-7/fulltext
Although progress towards implementation of international agreements since publication of the UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health in December, 2018, has been slow, global trends in migration and forced displacement have continued to rise. However, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that reaching refugees and migrants with health interventions is feasible with political will. The benefits of refugee-inclusive and migrant-inclusive health-care systems during emergencies (eg, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine) are apparent, with numerous examples of inclusive policy making being rapidly introduced and innovative models developed to support health-care access, including preventive measures such as vaccination. Lessons from these successes should be learned and incorporated into future policy and practice. However, global political and financial uncertainty and disruption—combined with multiple conflicts and natural disasters—have increased individuals’ need to move, which will continue to be exacerbated by the climate crisis. Although new conflicts and exacerbations of existing ones have led to a rise in forced displacement within and across national borders, labour migration has also risen dramatically, with the pandemic highlighting the health and social needs of these groups globally. The need for strong leadership and accountability, engagement of policy makers in the highest-level fora, and improved access to quality health services for refugees and migrants has never been greater. In this Review, nearly 8 years after the UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health was published, we renew our call for action to: (1) improve health-care access and optimise outcomes for refugees and migrants by emphasising health in all migration and forced displacement policies; (2) establish data systems to monitor progress, together with appropriate use of new technologies to improve access, prevent harm, and safeguard privacy; (3) support research on adaptation to and mitigation of the health consequences of climate change on refugees and migrants; and (4) renew focus on the political determinants of health outcomes for people on the move. At this pivotal moment, with geopolitical, sociodemographic, and environmental turmoil, political leaders and societies can shape a better future by leveraging the human capital of migrants and upholding the human rights and dignity of all.
Introduction
Since publication of the UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health1 in December, 2018, both migration and forced displacement have continued to rise. According to the latest estimates from the UN Population Division, by the end of 2024 there were more than 300 million international migrants (figure 1A), including approximately 170 million labour migrants and 42 million refugees and asylum seekers.4 Although high-income countries remain major destinations, migration to low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) is also increasing (figure 1A), which could partly be explained by the rise in forced displacements within and across national borders. The estimated number of forcibly displaced people rose to more than 110 million people by the end of June, 2023, including internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees, and asylum seekers (figure 1B).3 70% of refugees continue to be in neighbouring countries near areas of active conflict.3 Globally, about 1·5% of the world’s population is now forcibly displaced.3
The global health landscape has markedly evolved since 2018, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, worsening climate change and its related crises, conflicts, and geopolitical and financial turmoil, each of which have substantial implications and impact on our previous recommendations. Adverse political rhetoric and hostile policies against refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants not only remain rife but have grown more pervasive and increasingly politically polarising, further deepening divisions within and between societies. Global political power remains a key determinant of inaction, with current multilateral initiatives largely ineffective in exerting change. Anthropogenic climate change and its consequences—such as rising sea levels, desertification, and heat—present major threats that will worsen displacement and health outcomes, particularly as evidence on how to effectively support concomitant action to prepare for and mitigate adverse health impacts remains scarce.1 Migration-related myths continue to be used to justify policies of exclusion, despite many of these unfounded claims being debunked by evidence in our original Commission.
Our 2018 Commission used a broad lens to examine migration and health, resulting in four key messages and a call to action. In this Review, nearly 8 years after publication of the original Commission, we examine progress against the four key recommendations on leadership and accountability, engagement in the highest-level policy fora, tackling racism and xenophobia, and improving access to good health (appendix). We then analyse important aspects of migration, forced displacement, and health, where new evidence has emerged in the past 7 years. We conclude with a renewed call for action to the global health community and emphasise the immense value migration adds to health, economies, and societal prosperity.
sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673626004940
