An Equal Shot: Why Global Vaccination Efforts Must Include Refugees
The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful reminder that immunization is one of the most effective ways to protect our loved ones, reunite our families, and bring us all closer together. But the last year has also shown that vaccines are not equally distributed. The most vulnerable among us—including forcibly displaced and stateless people, particularly women and girls—are too often overlooked or left behind. Every year, nearly 20 million children around the world are deprived of the full course of essential vaccines, and while they wait for access to essential health services, vaccine-preventable diseases such as cholera, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus—and now COVID-19—wait to rob them of their right to a healthy future.
The two of us are intimately aware of the devastating consequences of discrimination and exclusion. One of us, Gugu, is an actor and Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Both of my parents worked in frontline health services, and my father, a doctor and activist, was assisted by UNHCR when he fled Apartheid South Africa. My mother, born in England, was a nurse and worked in health care for her entire career. The other one of us, Anuradha, is a lifelong advocate for the rights of women, adolescents, and children. I currently serve as Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which helps vaccinate millions of children and adults every year in lower-income countries, including in places torn apart by war and violence. Together, we’re driven by a shared passion to eliminate the deep inequities that prevent millions from getting the primary health care, and life-saving vaccines, they need.
As COVID-19 vaccinations continue, economies rebound, and social life begins to return to normal in wealthier countries, refugees and other displaced people—who live mostly in low- and middle-income countries—remain severely under-protected against a disease with which they have the least resources to cope. As a result, governments, and the international health and humanitarian communities, must make sure that everyone has equal access to vaccines. And we all must hold them accountable.
This is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. We cannot slow the spread of COVID-19 until people in every part of the world are vaccinated. This includes the 82.4 million forcibly displaced people in more than 100 countries, including 26.4 million refugees, according to UNHCR’s latest annual Global Trends report released last month.
From Serbia to Nepal to Rwanda to Jordan, 91 of 162 countries surveyed by UNHCR have begun vaccinating refugees and asylum-seekers against COVID-19. Now, we urge all countries to follow their lead. Where government vaccination campaigns cannot reach, or where new displacements may leave refugees and asylum-seekers unprotected, COVAX is ready to work with its humanitarian partners, such as UNHCR, to deliver vaccines via the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer, a supply of vaccines set aside for populations in humanitarian settings, such as war zones.
In several countries that host a large number of refugees, many are afraid to use public services for fear they will be deported. Others do not have the identification documents needed to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Governments must assure people that they will not be punished for seeking vaccinations—and keep that promise. Removing the requirement to show ID when signing up for or receiving the COVID-19 vaccination would be a significant step in expanding access, especially for women, who are more likely than men to be without identification.
For many families, routine immunization is the only thing that brings them into a hospital or clinic in the first two years of their child’s life. But for refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless people, their children’s right to immunization is not always upheld. Nearly 14 million children born every year do not receive a single vaccine. These “zero-dose” children represent the most alarming societal inequities—with zero protection against preventable diseases, such as measles and polio.
Today, we have a real chance at closing this vaccination gap. The lessons we learn from creating innovative and humane solutions and policies during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to safeguard every child’s right to health and to create more successful vaccination strategies in the future.
The pandemic has brought together partners from all sectors of society. We’ve seen technology giants, philanthropists, UN agencies, and others work together to deliver billions of COVID-19 vaccines. We need to cultivate and continue those partnerships. And we need governments to continue to do their part to make sure no one is left behind when it comes to the COVID-19 and all other life-saving vaccines.
In June, we celebrated World Refugee Day by honoring the strength and courage of refugees around the world. In July and every month forward, we must honor our promise to them. Join us in calling on world leaders to continue the movement toward equity in vaccination for the forcibly displaced, for women and girls, and for everyone. No one is safe until everyone is safe.
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