 Hello, we are here at the 109th Council of the UN Migration Agency, and today we're going to be talking about migration health. To help us with this topic, we have Jacqueline Vakers. Can you please tell us, what do you do here at the UN Migration Agency? Okay, thank you very much. I am the Director of the Migration Health Division of IOM, I'm based here in headquarters, and we had a panel here yesterday at the IOM Council discussing the topic of migration health in the member states. Incredible. Now, what is the link between migration and health? Yes, that's actually a good question, because we're a migration agency, we're not a health agency, so why would we address the topic? In fact, there are several reasons why we address the topic of migration health. First of all, migrants are human beings, and they have a right to health. This sounds extremely simple, but it is actually very complicated, because many migrants have great trouble exercising their right to health. Because of the situations that they find themselves in, many migrants may be in a very marginalized situation and are not able to access needed health services. So even if there is a human right and even if they have a right to health, it may be very difficult for them to find their needed health services. That's one. Second is, there is no public health without migrant health. What I want to say with that is that in our diverse societies today, in some countries, some cities, more than half of citizens are foreign born. It is very important for public health systems to be very aware of all the health issues associated with migration. And addressing the health of migrants is very important for public health reasons, in that perspective. Thirdly, I want to say that it's a very important development topic. Of course, it's also the topic of migration, as well as health. It appears, of course, in sustainable development goals. But to be more specific, healthy migrants are people who contribute to development. They contribute to development and are drivers for development for their countries and communities of origin, as well as their countries and communities of destination. They work, they study, but in order to do so, they do have to be healthy. Absolutely. Health comes before wealth. Let's put it that way. And so what we all know is a lot of migrants send remittances back home. And those remittances are typically used for home expenses, including health needs of their families who are, let's say, left behind. Another important angle is, of course, the fact that a lot of migrants simply pay taxes. They contribute to society. So in that sense, it's very important to realize the economic development link of migrants. So now this sounds like an incredibly heavy topic with a lot of diverse aspects and angles to it. So what does the UN Migration Agency do on this issue? It sounds so vast and so broad and necessary. Yeah. IOM, as you may know, is an agency that typically works very closely with member states. We have a very large network of offices throughout the world. So thanks to that, we are able to work together with member states as well as our beneficiaries, the migrants themselves. On the one hand, we work closely with member states. We help them address all health issues that are associated with migration and strengthen their health systems to better address the public health in their countries as well and their regions, of course, as well as the health issues of the migrants in their countries or migrants coming from their countries. What's very important too online is that we look at migration health from all the faces of the migration process, meaning before people depart the home country, when they are traveling, some may travel in very dangerous ways and have many health challenges throughout their journey, when they are on transit, when they may be stranded, as well as upon destination for integration reasons and also upon return. So we work, we connect those member states, let's say, throughout the migration journey. So to give you a very concrete example, when migrants go from one country to another country, they may be important needs to ensure continuity of treatment. Continuity of treatment means that different health systems that a migrant goes through will somehow have to connect. We can connect those health systems. We can work with governments in trying to better harmonize their regulations, their policies, of course, together with national partners whom we work with very closely, as well as, of course, partner agencies such as WHO and many other UN partners, and not to forget civil society, they are extremely important in our work. Not what I want to underline as well, and I think that's what makes us very proud also as an organization and as a migration health team, is we have really true exposure to the migrants. We don't only work at policy level, we work with governments and work with partners. We really work with migrants themselves. We have close encounters with the migrant populations. It can be refugees, it can be irregular migrants, it can be asylum seekers, it can be people affected by crisis situations. So in that respect we are able to ensure that they have access to needed health services. We can assist them in diagnosis, in treatment. And to give you a few examples, in 2017 we delivered some 400,000 vaccines to our beneficiaries who were in fragile contexts. We had over 300,000 beneficiaries benefiting from our mental health and psychosocial support and in crisis settings. We delivered over 350,000 health assessments for migrants before they embarked on their journey to their new destination, and they came from over 80 different countries. We do that work on behalf of more than 30 destination countries, these health assessments. Primary health care access to more than 2.5 million people who are living. Who are living in fragile settings and so on and so on. So I want to really underline the beauty and the complexity of the work of IOM. We work with partners and member states as well as really have an extremely good understanding of what the challenges are for our beneficiaries on the ground. Well, as a migrant and as just someone who cares about migrants and migration health, I am grateful that you are here helping to lead the charge on this very, very important issue. And thank you all so much for joining us. Thank you Jacqueline for this conversation, we're so grateful. Thank you.