Global access to COVID-19 vaccines for everyone who needs them is a step all governments should cooperate on. The pandemic has demonstrated that no one in the world will be safe until everyone is safe.
In-country prioritization of vaccines should include all eligible priority groups, regardless of who they are. Migrants should be given equal access to vaccinations.
The United States, Germany, Jordan, and other countries have unveiled multiple measures to provide equitable vaccines, including vaccinating asylum seekers, migrants, and the forcibly displaced. Similar comprehensive approaches to immigrants were adopted for COVID-19 testing, treatment in Ireland, Malaysia, Portugal, Qatar and the United Kingdom.
We call on all states to redouble their efforts to overcome all the obstacles, and to put in place protocols that facilitate equitable access to vaccines for migrants, asylum seekers and the forcibly displaced. World leaders should refrain from discriminatory rhetoric that may lead to the exclusion of certain groups getting vaccinated.
To register for or receive vaccinations, some states require identity documents which refugees often do not have. Others have set up online systems that can deter or prevent people without access to the Internet or who are not computer literate from registering for vaccines.
In several countries, vaccination sites are located far from where refugees live, which could deter them from seeking immunization. This is the case particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where newly reported COVID-19 cases are on the rise, in contrast to the observable decline in many parts of the world.
Governments work on and cooperate in fair and globally coordinated vaccine distribution programs – such as the COVAX Facility – or else they risk impeding recovery from the pandemic. The COVAX Facility aims to achieve equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines through equitable distribution of 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Given the urgency of ensuring that everyone, everywhere, has access to COVID-19 vaccines as quickly and effectively as possible, Washington Center For Human Rights urge all states to take concrete steps that ensure all people have equal access to the vaccines.