AIM The aim of this study was to describe asylum seekers' satisfaction with daily occupations and activity level while in a Danish asylum centre, and whether this changed over time. Another aim was to describe whether exposure to torture, self-rated health measures, and ADL ability were related to their satisfaction with daily occupations and activity level. METHODS A total of 43 asylum seeke...

OBJECTIVE There has been uncertainty about whether refugees and asylum seekers with PTSD can be treated effectively in standard psychiatric settings in industrialized countries. In this study, Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) was compared to Treatment As Usual (TAU) in 11 general psychiatric health care units in Norway. The focus was on changes in symptom severity and in the diagnostic status f...

Refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe during the 2015/2016 wave of migration have been exposed to war conditions in their country of origin, survived a dangerous journey, and often struggled with negative reception in transit and host countries. The mental health consequence of such forced migration experiences is named the Ulysses syndrome. Policies regarding the right to residency ca...

BACKGROUND Refugees and asylum seekers often struggle to use general practice services in resettlement countries. AIM To describe and analyse the literature on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers using general practice services in countries of resettlement. DESIGN AND SETTING Literature review using systematic search and narrative data extraction and synthesis methodologies. Inte...

Screening asylum seekers for infectious diseases is widely performed, but economic evaluations of such are scarce. We performed a policy analysis and economic evaluation of such screening in Germany, and analysed the effect of screening policies on cost differences between federal states. Of the 16 states, screening was compulsory for tuberculosis (TB) in asylum seekers ≥ 16 years of age in all...

The largest measles outbreak in Berlin since 2001 occurred from October 2014 to August 2015. Overall, 1,344 cases were ascertained, 86% (with available information) unvaccinated, including 146 (12%) asylum seekers. Median age was 17 years (interquartile range: 4-29 years), 26% were hospitalised and a 1-year-old child died. Measles virus genotyping uniformly revealed the variant 'D8-Rostov-Don' ...

A n ugly feature of political life throughout the Western world, and beyond, is the suspicion towards, and maltreatment of, migrants from poor to rich countries. People who would otherwise be horrified at being labelled racist nevertheless find it acceptable to support practices which can range from stigmatisation (for instance through requiring failed asylum seekers to pay for basic necessitie...

OBJECTIVES To thematically synthesise primary qualitative studies that explore challenges and facilitators for health professionals providing primary healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers in high-income countries. DESIGN Systematic review and qualitative thematic synthesis. METHODS Searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science. Search terms were combined for qualitat...

An unprecedented rise in the number of asylum seekers and refugees was seen in Europe in 2015, and it seems that numbers are not going to be reduced considerably in 2016. Several studies have tried to estimate risk of infectious diseases associated with migration but only very rarely these studies make a distinction on reason for migration. In these studies, workers, students, and refugees who ...

Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Policy in Europe The number of refugees worldwide is now 12 million, up from 3 million in the early 1970s. And the number seeking asylum in the developed world increased tenfold, from about 50,000 per annum to half a million over the same period. Governments and international agencies have grappled with the twin problems of providing adequate humanitarian assistance...