Securing the Right to Health of Asylum Seekers: A Small-Scale Qualitative Case Study in Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract

Deploying legal analysis and a small-scale qualitative dataset, this paper considers the right to health of asylum seekers, as a subgroup of distress migrants, in Greece in the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic and thereafter. The public health care system in Greece is operating under significant constraints stemming from austerity policies. We analyze the legal entitlements of asylum seekers as found in Greek and international law and confirm a significant gap between the right to health in theory and the right to health in practice. While some administrative matters have improved, in general, widespread human rights failures to provide the right to health for vulnerable asylum seekers arriving in Greece continue. In particular, shortcomings in the health care system's capacity and structure, as well as poor arrangements to secure the underlying conditions for good health, affect the practical realization of the right to health of asylum seekers, many of whom have complex health needs.