Hungary: assessing health-system capacity to manage sudden, large influxes of migrants

Overview

Migration and health is one of the topics to which the WHO European health policy framework, Health 2020, has drawn particular attention, along with other issues related to population vulnerability and human rights. Hungary has been significantly involved in a large flow of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, the majority fleeing the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan and Iraq. Hungary estimates that the 2015 refugee, asylum seeker and migrant population is almost 400 000, currently representing approximately 33% of the 1.2 million crossing the external borders of the European Union (EU) up to October 2015; at the time of this assessment, there were more than 360 000 migrants, among whom more than 170 000 applied for asylum. Furthermore, 80% of the arrivals in 2015 left within the first few days and an additional 10% left within two weeks for other EU destination countries, making Hungary both a large receiving and a transit country. This report reflects Hungary’s situation of large influxes of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that crossed the Hungarian border prior to the border access legislation of 16 October, even as the seasonal temperatures began to decline. In this context, the Hungarian Government, and specifically the State Secretariat for Health in the Ministry of Human Capacities, requested a WHO mission to support the health authorities in assessing the capacity of the Hungarian health system in managing large influxes of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The joint Ministry of Human Capacities–WHO assessment was consequently conducted from 12 to 16 October 2015 within the framework of the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Public Health Aspects of Migration in Europe (PHAME) project, with Hungarian representatives of governmental agencies, nongovernmental agencies and international organizations as active participants in the assessment process.