Women constitute 47 percent of the 40 million people in the world are internally displaced in their countries, or living as refugees in another country, and who also face a higher risk of physical or sexual violence, are those with reduced access to maternal health services.
According to the report “State of World Population 2010″, prepared by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the communities hosting migrants should provide maternal health care quality and affordability, as if they do not bring public and social costs in the long term.
This fact is ignored by the target nations, and women who are forced to migrate, or do it illegally, living a “heightened vulnerability, to unacceptable levels due to the lack of services, in particular maternal and child health, “says Dior Diane, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), quoted in the report of UNFPA.
The lack of access to maternal and child health leading to risk the lives of women and their children. We, the children who received no prenatal care are more susceptible to premature birth, and disorders of growth and development.
Moreover, if left untreated maternal health of women migrants “can perpetuate the poor health of migrant communities, which eventually overload the health systems of host countries,” says the UNFPA report.
Recent studies in European countries, the illegal immigrant status of women, as well as increase the risk of suffering physical and sexual violence, reduce their access to maternal and child care.
The picture gets worse because the fact those migrants are more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy than other women are because they may suffer sexual violence and because they lack access to family planning.
