Undocumented migrants’ access to health care in Norway – current challenges, future perspectives. 5th April, 2022
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have again in their latest report on Norway, criticized the disconnect between Norway’s human rights obligations and the restricted access to health care services for undocumented migrants, including European Union citizens lacking a European health insurance card. Many clinicians continue to face difficult dilemmas in their efforts to bridge the gap between the health care needs and the lacking entitlements of their undocumented patients, calling for scholarly and policy debates on how to address this gap. The seminar is timely given the number of Ukrainian refugees being received currently by Norway, some of which may need medical attention.
Main content
About the seminar
In this seminar Elisabeth Marie Strømme will share her experiences from providing health care to undocumented migrants over several years as a volunteer for Health Centre for Undocumented Migrants in Bergen and through Centre for Migration Health in Bergen municipality. Her talk comes at the backdrop of a new proposal on access to health care for undocumented migrants in Norway which is currently being evaluated by the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services in the Norwegian Parliament. Her presentation will address the following key questions: (1) What are the current challenges and the future perspectives of securing access to health care for undocumented migrants in Norway (2) What are the most pressing knowledge gaps according to a clinician and how can research in the area fill these gaps?
Elisabeth Marie Strømme is a family doctor and researcher at Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care. She is a member of the IMER Junior Scholar Network and recently defended her thesis titled “Changes in health among Syrian refugees"