Access to medicines among asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants across the migratory cycle in Europe: a scoping review

Introduction: Access to essential medicines is a critical element of health systems and an important measure of their performance. Migrants may face barriers in accessing healthcare, including essential medicines, throughout the migration cycle, which includes the stages of departure from home or residence countries, transit through non-European or European countries, reception and settlement in a country in Europe and deportation. We aim to provide an overview of research and grey literature concerning access to essential medicines for asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants in or heading to Europe (European Union, European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK). Methods: To delineate and conceptualise access to medicines, we considered the definition of the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines and the Pharmaceutical Management framework. These frameworks were combined to guide several critical steps in our review, including defining the search terms, data extraction, data analyses and reporting. Relevant studies and reports were identified through searches in bibliographic and grey literature databases. Results: Out of 5760 studies and 66 grey literature reports, 108 met the inclusion criteria, with 72 focusing on medicine access. Overall, medicine use and medicine expenditure were found to be lower in migrant populations compared with the host population in many European countries. Although many studies focused on the use of infectious disease and psychotropic medicines, the most frequently used medicines by migrants were analgesics, hypertension and diabetes medicines. Determinants of medicine access were legal restrictions, language and transit times, which all contributed to interruption of and inequities in access to medicines among this population. This scoping review also indicated significant gaps in the literature regarding the evidence on access to medicine at different stages of the migration cycle, specifically in departure, transit and deportation stages. Conclusion: Overall, our findings highlighted significant unmet medicine needs among migrants in or on the way to Europe and access disparities attributable to various interconnected barriers. Urgent access is needed to address such inequities, particularly legal barriers, including registration of certain medicines required for treatment. Future research should prioritise investigating medicine access during departure, transit and deportation stages. Policy discussions around migrants’ access to medicines should be centred on framing healthcare as a fundamental right.