拒絕讓移民入醫療系統的社會有危險

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) warns that societies that deny migrants access to health care do so at their peril. To mark International Migrants Day Sunday, IOM is calling on governments worldwide to offer health services to all people, including legal and illegal migrants.

國際移民組織警告說，拒絕給移民提供醫療服務的社會是在冒險。星期天爲了紀念國際移民日，國際移民組織正在呼籲世界各國政府爲包括合法和非法移民在內的所有人提供醫療衛生服務。

The International Organization for Migration says governments would be wise to grant migrants access to health services, if only for purely selfish reasons.

國際移民組織表示，如果純粹處於自我考慮的因素，各國政府爲移民提供醫療衛生服務是明智之舉。

IOM notes deadly diseases such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and Bird Flu are highly contagious. They travel around the world. They kill people indiscriminately - citizens and migrants alike. IOM argues excluding migrants from health care systems is both dangerous to the individual and to the public at large.

國際移民組織指出，類似薩斯病和禽流感在內的致命性疾病具有高度傳染性。這些疾病在世界範圍傳播蔓延，不管是公民還是移民一樣都會因爲這些疾病喪生。國際移民組織表示，把移民排除在醫療服務體系之外的做法，總體上對於個人和大衆而言都是危險的。

The agency considers migration one of the biggest challenges facing global health today. It says migrants face many barriers to health care. These include language or cultural differences, lack of health insurance and administrative hurdles.

國際移民組織認爲，移民是今天全球健康醫療體系面對的最大挑戰之一。該組織表示，移民在接受醫療服務方面有諸多障礙。這其中包括語言或者文化差異，缺少醫療保險以及管理障礙。

Director of Migration Health at IOM, Davide Mosca, says undocumented or irregular migrants have the greatest difficulty in accessing health services. He says their legal status makes them vulnerable to exploitation and discourages them from seeking care.

國際移民組織的移民健康部主任莫斯卡表示，在獲得醫療服務方面，非法移民面臨的困難最多。他說，他們的非法身份，導致他們非常易於受到剝削的傷害，並讓他們沒有勇氣去尋求醫療救治。

“Even in the country where, the few countries that have given access to regular migrants to basic health care, sometimes they do not go for fear of deportation or different approaches in the politics of the country at that moment. And, they then resolve to go to these services only in emergencies. This, of course, is not the best way to do it for many reasons…First of all because it might be too late, because it might be too costly and certainly this would not have a good result on the health of the migrant,” Mosca said.

莫斯卡說：“即使是在那些爲數不多的給合法移民提供基本醫療保健服務的國家，有些時候非法移民也因爲害怕被遣返，或者那個國家當時出現的不同政治氛圍，而不敢去接受治療。他們只是在情況緊急的時候，才能下決心去醫療機構尋求救治。當然，這不是處理健康問題的最佳辦法。原因有很多，首先，這樣做可能會導致病情拖延，太遲了；再者，這樣可能導致醫療費用變得極其高昂，當然，這時候去看病不會對移民的健康帶來好的結果。”

IOM says a delay in seeking care also increases public health risks, particularly if infectious diseases are involved. It says emergency care ends up being more expensive than if migrants had access to preventive and primary health care.

國際移民組織表示，在就醫方面的拖延，還會增加公衆的健康風險，尤其是患有傳染疾病的情況下，就更加如此。而且，急救服務最終的花費要比移民們接受預防性和早期醫療服務昂貴得多。There are more than one billion migrants worldwide; 214 million of them have gone to foreign countries. IOM says every country in the world is either dependent on the labor, skills and knowledge migrants bring or on the money they earn.

全世界有10億多各類移民，其中2億1400萬移民是去了外國。國際移民組織表示，世界上各個國家，要麼依賴移民帶來的勞動力、技能和知識，要麼依賴移民所賺的錢。

IOM spokeswoman, Jemini Pandya, says most countries recognize that migrants are an economic necessity they cannot do without. She says it is to the benefit of societies at large to take care of their migrant populations.

國際移民組織女發言人傑米尼·潘迪亞表示，絕大多數國家都承認移民對發展經濟是不可或缺的。她表示，因此關心照顧移民總體上對於社會是有益的。

“If you do not take care of the health of the migrants, many of the structures on which our societies and economies function today could not survive, could not cope ... Global development on every level could not continue. So, that health aspect is absolutely integral to every single aspect of our modern lives today - the health aspects of migrants," Pandya said. "And given that we are living in a world where dependency on migrants is ever growing, this is an issue that governments ignore at their peril, essentially.”

她說：“如果你不關心照顧移民的健康，我們今天社會和經濟功能的很多結構就無法存在和成功應對，全球發展的每個層面都無法持續。因此，健康狀況對於我們今天現代生活的每個方面來說都是絕對不可或缺的，尤其是移民的健康狀況。考慮到我們生活在一個對移民的依賴越來越大的世界，這是一個各國政府根本無法忽視的問題。”

While the economic argument might be persuasive, IOM says it is important to recognize that migrants, above all else, are human beings. It says they should not be seen as a mere commodity, representing an economic value that is easily replaceable.

國際移民組織表示，儘管經濟因素可能具有說服力，但是重要的是要意識到，移民首先也是人。該機構表示，移民不應當被視爲只是一件商品，具有一定經濟價值，但是可以輕易拋棄的商品。

IOM argues that denying migrants access to health care is both a violation of their human rights and, ultimately, self-defeating.

國際移民組織表示，拒絕向移民提供醫療服務，既是對人權的侵犯，最終也會傷及自身。