BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruptions globally, with food insecurity a primary concern amongst vulnerable communities. As one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in Israeli society asylum seekers and undocumented populations were amongst the first to be affected by the pandemic and the economic crisis that followed. The objective of the study was to evaluate the severity and causes of food insecurity among asylum seekers and other undocumented communities because of COVID-19.
METHODS: A multi method approach was used. The quantitative component included an online questionnaire regarding access to food, aid and choices, and the 6 item Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) The qualitative component included 4 focus groups and thematic analysis. The study was conducted in November 2020, by the Ministry of Health\'s Nutrition Division and the Tel Aviv Municipality\'s foreign community assistance and information center (Mesila). The convenience sample was drawn from the low-income neighborhood population of South Tel Aviv. Logistic regression, multivariate analysis and content analysis, were performed.
RESULTS: Four hundred eighty-five people completed the quantitative survey, with average age 33.2 ± 5.4 years and 349 (72.0%) experienced food insecurity. In the multivariate analysis, being older (p = 0.04, Odds Ratio OR 1.1, Confidence Interval CI 1.05-1.15) and being single (unmarried) (p = 0.03, OR 2.1, CI 1.2, 3.5) predicted food insecurity. Qualitative findings identified three main themes: children preferring Israeli/ Western foods to traditional foods; financial stresses were compounded; a preference for receiving assistance with purchasing food (vouchers), rather than food handouts.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, vulnerable populations (asylum seekers and other undocumented communities) were severely affected and are in danger of food insecurity. Culturally relevant and contextualized solutions are needed to address the acute hunger within the community. These include establishment of a cross-ministerial forum, a social grocery store, increased liaison with food rescue bodies, complete nutritional support for children in educational settings and increased guidance regarding food choices and budgeting.

BACKGROUND: The MENA region has experienced extraordinary events in recent years, resulting in an influx of refugees and displaced people who are vulnerable to mental disorders. Several previous studies have examined their prevalence, but none have focused on this region. This systematic review provided an estimate of the prevalence of mental illness and associated risk factors in the MENA region, and overcame the methodological limitations of individual studies.
METHODS: Thorough searches of the relevant databases were carried out to locate relevant published articles. Furthermore, cross-sectional studies were conducted to assess mental disorders in refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, or internally displaced people residing in the MENA region. Only studies meeting the aforementioned criteria were considered. For this purpose, RStudio software version 2023.12.0 + 369 with netmeta package was used for measurement and data analysis. JBI used to assess study quality.
RESULTS: The results, including 32 cross-sectional studies with a total of 21659 participants were obtained and discussed. The overall prevalence was 42% (95% CI; 30%, 54%) for depression, 43% (95% CI; 31%, 57%) for anxiety, 22% (95% CI; 11%, 39%) for stress, and 45% (95% CI; 36%, 53%) for PTSD. As a result, it was noted that being female was associated with depression, and being female and unemployed was associated with PTSD, however being married was protective against this later.
CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the rest of the globe, MENA has a greater rate of mental illness among refugees. Nevertheless, much effort should be devoted on listing causes associated, as well as their management and prevention.

Background: Refugees and asylum seekers (ASRs) are frequently exposed to loss in addition to a variety of other stressors and often display high levels of various psychological symptoms.Objective: The study aimed to primarily determine clusters of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression symptoms in bereaved ASRs and secondly identify predictors of cluster membership. Sociodemographic  - and flight-related variables were investigated in exploratory analyses.Method: ASRs in Germany (N = 92) with interpersonal loss exposure, i.e. at least one missing or deceased relative or friend, were assessed with interview-based questionnaires for PGD, PTSD, and depressive symptoms. We used k-means cluster analysis to distinguish symptom profiles and logistic regression analyses to identify predictors of cluster membership.Results: We found a three-cluster-solution. The PGD-cluster (30%) was characterised predominantly by PGD symptoms, while the PGD/PTSD-cluster (32%) had high PGD and PTSD and moderate depressive symptoms. The resilient cluster (38%) showed low symptoms overall. insecure residence status predicted membership in the PGD and PGD/PTSD clusters relative to the resilient cluster, whilst higher attachment anxiety predicted membership in the PGD/PTSD cluster relative to the other clusters. Explorative analysis revealed duration of stay as a significant predictor.Conclusion: Findings can extend the current knowledge about different symptom profiles among bereaved ASRs in Europe. Insights to attachment  - and migration-related variables distinguishing between these profiles offer starting points for interventions.
Bereaved asylum seekers and refugees in Germany can be grouped into three symptom clusters: (1) predominantly prolonged grief, (2) high prolonged grief, high posttraumatic stress, and moderate depressive symptoms, and (3) low symptom load.Attachment  – and migration-related variables (i.e. residence status, duration of stay, and attachment anxiety) distinguish between cluster membership.Results highlight the importance of attending to profiles and not only single categories of symptoms and attachment features in bereaved asylum seekers and refugees.

The health of refugees has been widely documented, as has the impact of a range of factors throughout the migration journey from being exposed to violence to the impacts of immigration detention. This study adds to our understanding of health-related quality of life amongst refugees and asylum seekers by evaluating health-related quality of life as measured by the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey using meta-analysis. The aims of this study were to (1) provide a summary and overview of health-related quality of life (as measured by the SF-36), including the extent to which this varies and (2) explore the factors that influence health-related quality of life (as measured by the SF-36) amongst refugees and asylum seekers. A search was undertaken of MEDLINE, CINAHL, PSYCINFO and SCOPUS, returning 3965 results. Papers were included if they sampled refugees (or asylum seeker or those with refugee-like experiences) and used the SF-36 (or its variants) as an outcome measure. Mean scores and standard deviations were pooled using a random effects model. The pooled sample size was 18,418. The pooled mean scores for the SF-36 physical summary measures was 54.99 (95% CI 46.01-63.99), while the mental health summary measure was 52.39 (95% CI 43.35-61.43). The pooled mean scores for each of the sub-scales ranged from 49.6 (vitality) to 65.54 (physical functioning). High heterogeneity was found between both summary measures and all sub-scales. In comparison to SF-36 results from general populations in high and middle income countries, these results suggest that refugee quality of life is generally poorer. However, this varied substantially between studies. One issue that is not well clarified by this review are the factors that contributed to health-related quality of life.

People seeking asylum are susceptible to head injury (HI) due to exposure to various forms of violence including war, torture, or interpersonal violence. Yet, the extents to which clinicians assess HI, and if so, what the associated characteristics are, are not well known. We analyzed 200 U.S.-based medico-legal affidavits using descriptive, multivariate regression, and thematic analysis. Head injury was documented in 38% of affidavits. Those who experienced physical violence were eight times likelier to experience HI than those who did not experience physical violence. Five themes emerged: (1) HI occurred commonly in the context of interpersonal violence (44%), followed by militarized violence (33%); (2) mechanisms of HI included direct blows to the head and asphyxiation, suggesting potential for both traumatic brain injury and brain injury from oxygen deprivation; (3) HI was often recurrent and concurrent with other physical injuries; (4) co-morbid psychiatric and post-concussive symptoms made it challenging to assess neurological and psychiatric etiologies; and (5) overall, there was a paucity of assessments and documentation of HI and sequelae. Among individuals assessed for asylum claims, HI is common, often recurrent, occurring in the context of interpersonal violence, and concurrent with psychological and other physical trauma. Physical violence is an important risk factor for HI, which should be assessed when physical violence is reported.

This paper investigates the multi-layered barriers asylum seekers face in accessing secure and adequate housing in a host society through the case of Catalonia (Spain). While the existing literature mainly focuses on the effects of micro-level factors, we argue that these need to be analysed in combination with meso-level actors and macro-structural phenomena. Drawing on an exploratory survey of 300 international protection applicants and 60 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and asylum seekers, we analyse their exposure to different dimensions of housing precariousness. Our research finds that, although certain individual characteristics such as age, sex and origin remain relevant in explaining housing pathways, these factors are strongly mediated by the role of NGOs and support networks, and by the structural features of the asylum system and housing market. We conclude that the complex interactions of these factors result in deeply unstable and fragmented housing trajectories that contribute to high levels of disorientation, precariousness, and exclusion among those seeking accommodation.

BACKGROUND: Almost 281 million people were living in a foreign country in 2022, and more than 100 million were displaced because of war conflicts and human right violations. Vaccination coverage of infectious diseases in migrants from some disadvantaged settings could be lower than reception countries populations, consequently seroprevalence studies and better access to vaccination could contribute to reducing these differences.
METHODS: A descriptive retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted including migrants, living ≤5 years in the reception country and ≥16 years old, who requested a medical exam between January 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. Seroprevalence assessment was performed, and vaccination was offered to those individuals without immunity to hepatitis B, hepatitis A, varicella, measles, mumps, and rubella.
RESULTS: A total of 315 migrants were attended during the study period. Immunity protection at arrival was 252/296 (85.1%) for measles, 274/295 (92.9%) for rubella, 257/296 (86.8%) for mumps, 264/295 (89.5%) for varicella, 267/313 (85.3%) for hepatitis A, and 104/300 (34.6%) for hepatitis B. The final immunity protection after full vaccination schedules was 278/296 (93.9%) for measles, 287/295 (97.3%) for rubella, 274/296 (92.6%) for mumps, 276/295 (93.6%) for varicella, 280/313 (89.5%) for hepatitis A, and 139/300 (46.3%) for hepatitis B.
CONCLUSIONS: The vaccination intervention has increased immunity rates for the studied diseases in the attended migrants in our center, however, such interventions should be maintained to reach local population immunization levels. Moreover, the collaboration between shelter and reference specialized health centers is fundamental to implement such vaccination programs.

Despite the existence of significant research on the mental health care challenges of migrants, particularly refugees and asylum seekers, less attention has been paid to treatment approaches. We used a case study from the UK to look at the topic from a cultural models approach (which comes from cognitive anthropology) to analyse migrants\' experiences with mental health care. Twenty-five refugees and asylum seekers living in North East England and Northern Ireland were interviewed who had used at least six sessions of talking therapy during the last three years. Our results suggested that adopting a \'cultural models\' approach, which offers a new conceptual and methodological framework of migrants\' experiences and their underlying schemas and expectations, would significantly contribute to building therapeutic alliances and provide relevant and appropriate treatments for migrant clients, particularly for unrecognised pre- and post-migration traumatic experiences.

UNASSIGNED: To explore the experiences of seeking asylum and its impact on mental health among sexual minority forced migrant cisgender men living in Sweden.
UNASSIGNED: Exploratory qualitative study based on individual semi-structured interviews with 15 adult gay and bisexual cisgender men recruited via a combination of purposeful, convenience and snowball sampling. Data were analysed with systematic text condensation through a collaborative approach with three migrants with lived experience.
UNASSIGNED: Seeking asylum had been an emotionally challenging journey for the participants in this study, involving several procedures that negatively impacted mental health. Being expected to disclose intimate information during asylum interviews had been a significant challenge, alongside needing to wait through long periods in uncertainty with little information about the progress of their asylum case. The behaviours and attitudes of professionals involved in the legal procedures had been a central aspect, as participants encountered interpreters and caseworkers who acted disrespectful and homophobic during asylum interviews. Participants mentioned that the behaviours of interpreters and the accuracy of the interpretation could influence the outcome of asylum claims and how comfortable they felt in sharing information. Thus, participants emphasized the importance of adequate and accurate interpreter services.
UNASSIGNED: Sexual minority men are faced with an unfamiliar and emotionally challenging position when seeking asylum and undergoing asylum interviews. The findings highlight the importance of adequate competence among professionals involved in asylum interviews, including interpreter utilization. Research is needed to determine effective methods to support these men throughout their asylum process.

Globally, human displacement is at a record high. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 110 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide owing to persecution, mass conflict, or human rights violations. Conflicts continue to rage in different parts of the world such as Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, and Tigray. Large-scale political upheaval is also on the rise in many countries such as Haiti, Venezuela, and Iran. Natural disasters fueled by climate change will further contribute to large-scale forced migration. Persons with forced migration experiences (PFMEs) tend to have significant rehabilitation needs because of high risk of physical injuries, mental trauma, and exacerbation of pre-existing health problems during displacement. Rehabilitation practitioners in host countries must be well equipped to address the complex needs of this population. However, there is currently limited literature to guide best practice. In this article, a group of interdisciplinary professionals examine rehabilitation needs among PFMEs, provide examples of established and emerging rehabilitation interventions with PFMEs in the context of asylum and resettlement, identify barriers to accessing rehabilitation services in host countries, and propose avenues for professional advocacy in this area.