The pledge to leave no one behind has been essential in making the plight of refugees more visible1 and in highlighting the need to include migrants and refugees in national health-care systems.
In Latin America, vulnerability in contexts of human mobility does not usually reside in refugee camps. This multidimensional, layered vulnerability is everywhere, dispersed and invisible, because migrants are physically present in communities yet excluded in every other way. Migrants might not be in camps or in detention, but their situation is ever more precarious. They have little access to social protection and health care,2, 3 they are informal workers most likely to suffer abuse from their employers or lose their source of income,4 they are marginalised and overcrowded in overpopulated urban settings or in rural areas where the virus will inevitably spread, and they are experiencing the many aspects of poverty.5
More importantly, migrants experiencing social vulnerability largely contribute to making lockdowns possible: they are couriers who deliver meals, they are fruit and vegetable pickers, and they are domestic workers. Leaving no one behind means considering the quiet struggle of vulnerable immigrants who make things happen as the rest of the population retreat into their homes, exposing themselves to contagion, usually with no protection and the threat of losing everything if they stop working.
Leaving no one behind in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic means that governments and employers alike should take responsibility for immigrants' welfare, through immediate actions and social, public health, and immigration policies in the long term.
Acknowledgments
We declare no competing interests.
References
- 1.The Lancet COVID-19 will not leave behind refugees and migrants. Lancet. 2020;395:1090. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30758-3. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Organización Internacional del Trabajo . OIT / Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe; Lima: 2018. Presente y futuro de la protección social en América Latina y el Caribe. [Google Scholar]
- 3.Cabieses B, Oyarte M. Health access to immigrants: identifying gaps for social protection in health. Rev Saude Publica. 2020;54:20. doi: 10.11606/S1518-8787.2020054001501. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.International Labour Organization . ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; Lima: 2017. Labour migration in Latin America and the Caribbean. Diagnosis, strategy and ILO's work in the region. [Google Scholar]
- 5.Cabieses B, Bernales M, McIntyre AMM. Universidad del Desarrollo; Concepción: 2017. La migración internacional como determinante social de la salud: miradas y propuestas para políticas públicas. [Google Scholar]