Refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants were exposed to significantly higher health risks during the Covid-19 pandemic than other population groups. A new study shows a 84 per cent higher risk of infection and a 46 per cent higher mortality rate among migrants compared to the general population. The findings are the result of extensive research led by Bielefeld University and realized in cooperation with the UN Migration Agency IOM and researchers from Heidelberg University Hospital and the Swedish universities of Uppsala and Umeå.
The analysis, published in eClinicalMedicine as part of The Lancet Discovery Science, includes data from more than 53 million people, including both migrants and natives from 22 countries. According to the study, systemic barriers often lead to poorer health outcomes for migrants. These include crowded living conditions, precarious working conditions and limited access to healthcare and social security.
'Migrants have been at an increased risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 not only in the early phases, but throughout the entire pandemic,' says the principal investigator Professor Dr Kayvan Bozorgmehr from Bielefeld University. 'Migrants infected with SARS-CoV-2 were not hospitalized more often; but they more often experienced severe course of disease, which resulted in a higher number of admissions to intensive care units. While clinical deaths were lower among migrants - probably due to their younger average age - population-based mortal.