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MIPEX HEALTH STRAND 2015: MIGRANT INTEGRATION POLICY INDEX COUNTRY REPORT CROATIA HEALTH STRAND

After 15 September 2015, when Hungary changed its policy of accepting refugees coming from Serbia, a large number of refugees headed for Croatia. The Croatian Government announced it was prepared for an influx. In less than two weeks during the second half of September 2015, almost 90.000 persons passed through Croatia. They remained briefly in the country before continuing on to Hungary or Slovenia. All available resources were mobilised to deal with the situation. The Minister of Health announced a state of emergency for the areas affected. Managers of health institutions were given the responsibility for dealing with needs on an incidental basis, and channels of communication were established. Between 17 and 30 September 2015, there were a total of 7.249 medical interventions. The emergency medical teams made 2.962 examinations while family medicine practices made 4.112 ; 175 migrants were given hospital treatment. The response to the refugee crisis was effective and fast, but there are certainly lessons that can be learned and used to develop migrant health policy. The overall experience and the challenges that health practitioners faced could now be used to inform everyday practice. Most of all, the importance of clear and effective communication when dealing with people coming from different cultures needs to be emphasized, as do the systematic education of medical staff, measures to increase awareness, the provision of interpretation services, and the deployment of cultural mediators. The final conclusion is that migrant health policy in Croatia is not well developed, but that it could and should be.

migrants, integration, health policy, Croatia

Gorgiev Mitre, main author, Špadina and Roksandić Vidlička peer review. Developed within the framework of the IOM Project ‘Fostering Health Provision for Migrants, the Roma and other Vulnerable Groups’ (EQUI- HEALTH). Co-funded by the European Commission’s Directorate for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and IOM. This report was produced within the framework of the IOM’s EQUI-HEALTH project, in collaboration with Cost Action IS1103 ADAPT and the Migrant Policy Group (MPG). Full details of the project and its methodology are contained in Sections I and II of the Summary Report, which can be downloaded from the IOM website at http://bit.ly/2g0GlRd .