Globally, there are more than one billion people on the move—roughly one in eight people. Of these, 281 million are international migrants, and 84 million are forcibly displaced (48 million are internally displaced persons, 26.6 million are refugees, and 4.4 million are asylum seekers). Among those forcibly displaced, 35 million are children, and one million have known only life as refugees since birth. In France, the latest available national data highlight the prevalence of physical and mental health issues, as well as the high rate of forgoing care and failing to exercise health rights amid extremely precarious living conditions.

World Refugee Day provides an annual opportunity to promote the tools and informational resources made available to organizations and professionals to improve care and health outcomes for the most vulnerable. Santé publique France and Comede (Committee for the Health of Exiles) have maintained a partnership for many years and are publishing a new edition of the Comede guide, available in print and online, to support professionals working in prevention, care, and support for vulnerable foreign nationals. Furthermore, to facilitate communication between doctors and their patients, the collection of bilingual health booklets is regularly expanded to include new languages.

The 2023 Comede Guide in Practice: Two Formats (Print and Web) to Support Professionals in Their Work

Faced with a demand that often involves support, care, access to healthcare, and legal advice, understanding the medical, psychological, social, and administrative aspects of the journey of vulnerable migrants is crucial to the care and support provided.

Developed by the Comede team based on the daily experiences of the association’s staff and volunteers, this guide—produced in partnership with Santé publique France—aims to provide solutions to the most common health issues faced by exiled individuals. First published in 1997, the Comede Guide is now in its 5th edition. The 2023 version has been completely revised and updated.

Designed to promote a multidisciplinary approach, this guide consists of four sections—background information, rights and support, access to care, and care and prevention—whose theoretical and practical information complements one another for various readers: healthcare professionals, social workers, legal and administrative support staff, volunteers, and others working with vulnerable exiles.

The hybrid format of the 2023 edition of the Comede guide aims to better meet the needs of professionals with two complementary resources:

• a reference book, available for order and download,

• a website, https://guide.comede.org, useful for fieldwork and regularly updated.

Bilingual health booklets to facilitate communication between migrants and healthcare and social services professionals

Communication is an essential element in patient care, and linguistic diversity creates certain barriers that can lead to difficulties in accessing care and prevention services. That is why Santé publique France, in collaboration with Comede and several partner organizations, has created the “Bilingual Health Booklet.” Intended for migrants and particularly for those in precarious situations, the bilingual health booklet is a tool for dialogue between healthcare and social service professionals and migrants who do not speak French. It is available in 17 languages: English, Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Mandarin Chinese, Haitian Creole, Dari, Spanish, Georgian, Mandarin, Urdu, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Tamil, Turkish, Pashto, and Ukrainian. The latest edition was published in 2022, in response to the wave of migration of the Ukrainian population to European Union countries, including France.

• Access the bilingual health booklets, tools for connecting migrants with healthcare and social services professionals