OBMICA Newsletter Editorial March 2021
Inequalities are visible not only between the Global South and the Global North, but also within countries in terms of access to vaccines. This is why it is important to have regularized and visible migrant populations so that they can be included in national vaccination campaigns, together with nationals of the various countries.
While lamenting the lack of vaccine access in many countries, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the world as being "on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure." On one hand, in a significant number of wealthy countries, the quantity of COVID-19 vaccines ordered exceeds what is needed. On the other hand, many countries will have to wait, possibly for years, for broader vaccine availability. If these excessive orders are fulfilled, what could happen with the surplus vaccines? There could be waste; perhaps the surplus would be sold to whoever could pay more; or perhaps delivery would be organized to developing countries where COVID-19 is still raging.
There has been preliminary success in developing so many viable vaccines in record time. But victory cannot be declared until the thorny issue of distribution is resolved. In 2017, anticipating this need for global coordination in a future pandemic, the public-private partnership ACT-Accelerator was established with the objective of organizing, financing, and distributing vital medical goods, led by Norway and the WHO. In 2020, the highly praised step was taken of establishing COVAX to immediately pay for the vaccination of 20% of the developing world. It is forecast that 1.7 billion doses could be available for 92 countries by the end of 2021, covering 26%. So far, this distribution mechanism has not clarified the redistribution of extra vaccines that may possibly be donated by partner countries.
But inequalities are visible not only between the Global South and the Global North, but also within countries in terms of access to vaccines. This is why it is important to have regularized and visible migrant populations so that they can be included in national vaccination campaigns, together with nationals of the various countries.
As mentioned in the article "One of the most important humanitarian gestures of the last decade: Welcoming the Venezuelan population," a step forward is the ongoing process for more than 100,000 Venezuelan migrants in irregular status in the Dominican Republic. It is also time to deepen follow-up to the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE), where the migration status of many migrants, mostly Haitians, remains in limbo seven years after the launch of this much-needed program in the country. It is urgent to reach these populations that are difficult to trace both because of their geographic location and because of their documentary status in the country, which tends to make them invisible to the authorities.
