EQUAL PROJECT
Year: 2006
Status: Implemented
Title: “Equality and Solidarity for Asylum Seekers”
Summary:
EQUAL is part of the European Union’s strategy for more and better jobs and for ensuring that no-one is denied access to them. The “ Equality and Solidarity for Asylum Seekers ” Project aims, through its various activities, to tackle all the aspects of discrimination and exclusion concerning asylum seekers in Cyprus. The driving force behind these activities is the active participation of asylum seekers and their empowerment, both on an individual and group level, so that the benefits with regard to integration and equal treatment are enduring.
The activities are listed below:
- Training of Asylum Seekers
This is a pilot project focusing on the improvement of the integration of asylum seekers in the host society and the labor market. 50 asylum seekers, split in two groups, one in Nicosia and one in Limassol, will be selected from among those in the various communities (countries of origin) who will show an interest in participating. A particular emphasis will be placed in attracting an equal number of female participants.
This group will initially receive training on issues of Greek Language and the Cypriot / European Landscape .
Following this, the group will receive training on one of the three professions offered by the programme, namely chef assistant, cooling systems technician and office secretary.
Having completed their training, the members of the group will be placed in companies, specifically selected and prepared for the purposes of the project. Length of employment in these companies will vary between two and four months.
- Creation of Mechanism of Mediation and Employment Support
The Mechanism will focus on the support of employment for asylum seekers, including mediation to tackle possible difficulties with the authorities, and on their professional empowerment, aiming towards integration in the society.
An important element of this activity is the employment / training of four individuals selected from the above-mentioned trainees, who will be trained in mediation and counseling techniques. Training will include the enhancement of the competencies of the participants so that they can play an important role, not only in the Mechanism, but also in other activities that aim at improving the position of asylum seekers in society.
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HUMA
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Summary:
The project contributes to enhancing the European Union population’s health, by improving asylum seekers’ and undocumented migrants’ access to health care. Médecins du Monde aims at documenting asylum seekers and undocumented migrants’ access to health care in the EU. Médecins du Monde also seeks to promote these populations’ right to access health care on equal terms with nationals, and a right to protection against deportation for seriously ill foreigners. MdM has always been particularly sensitive to the issue of migrants, one of the most vulnerable groups throughout the world in terms of access to health care. In the EU countries where MdM is present (10 EU countries2), health care centres have been set up in order to provide consultations, dispense prevention messages and refer people excluded from health care to partners and public health systems. Since most of the people coming to the health care centres were migrants, especially undocumented people or asylum seekers, it occurred to MdM that migrants were facing huge difficulties in accessing health care in the EU.
Through the Averroes/HUMA project, the work initiated by the MdM European Observatory on Access to Health Care is being strengthened and expanded.The project contributes to the Public Health Program. It aims at improving information and knowledge for the development of public health, enhancing the capability of responding in a coordinated way to health threats, and promoting health through addressing wider social determinants of health. More specifically, the project seeks to improve wider determinants of health and contributes to reducing health inequalities. MdM decided to reinforce its action towards rights (to health) of migrant populations in the European Union with the Averroes/HUMA project, through the setting-up of a wider network that will carry out field surveys, research and awareness raising activities at national and EU levels.The project proposes to create the Averroes/HUMA network covering 19 member states: the 10 EU member states where MdM is represented and 9 countries were MdM is not present. Partnerships will be established in these countries.This network will lead common activities: i) a survey of the European Observatory on Access to Health Care, that will document further the health status of the persons and their difficulties in accessing health care; ii) a survey on the legal framework concerning migrants’ access to health care in Europe; iii) the organisation of workshops, public events and advocacy activities at national and European level; iv) the dissemination of their results on a common website. The project will increase the capacity of European NGOs to document and defend asylum seekers’ and undocumented migrants’ access to health care in the EU, and seriously ill foreigners’ protection against deportation, by improving their analysis, networking and mobilisation capacities.
Through the Averroes/HUMA project’s activities, the network intends to improve knowledge on the issue of migrants’ health, as well as to convince policy makers of the necessity of improving their access to health care.The surveys published by the network will be strategically disseminated in 19 Member states and at EU level. European and national policy-makers concerned will be sensitised to the Averroes/HUMA project’s core messages, through their participation to national events, individual meetings and the European conference organised by the Averroes/HUMA network. Health professionals and the public opinion will be sensitized, through the surveys and other material available on the project’s website, to the difficulties encountered by the asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in accessing health care and prevention and will be encouraged to support the project’s messages. The project progress will be monitored through an internal and an external evaluation process.
