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Portrait of Yana Litins'ka

Yana Litins'ka

Senior lecturer

Portrait of Yana Litins'ka

Healthcare Services for Asylum-Seekers: Untangling the European Social Charter

Author

  • Yana Litins'ka

Summary, in English

Asylum-seekers, like any population, need healthcare services, yet national laws sometimes restrict access to such services. The European Social Charter (revised) protects the right to health and medical services. However, the Charter has a complex application, and its scope is limited concerning foreigners. This article analyses to what extent the provisions of the Charter on the right to health and medical assistance apply to adult asylum-seekers. It shows that the Charter may apply to various degrees to asylum-seekers depending on several
circumstances, such as the national definition of residence or regular work, grounds for seeking asylum, citizenship or lack thereof. Depending on these factors, some asylum-seekers may receive full healthcare services, whereas others may have only limited rights. The article shows that the migrant statuses created by national and EU law do not fit in the system of statuses in the Charter, which might produce legal hindrances to accessing health-related rights for asylum-seekers. The article also discusses the possible ways for the European
Committee of Social Rights to further expand the scope of the Charter’s application.

Department/s

  • Department of Law
  • Health Law
  • Norma Research Programme
  • Human Rights Law
  • Public International Law
  • Law and Vulnerabilities

Publishing year

2024-02-26

Language

English

Pages

1-19

Publication/Series

Medical Law Review

Volume

32

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Law

Keywords

  • Right to health
  • Right to medical assistance
  • European Social Charter
  • Human rights
  • Migration
  • Asylum-seekers
  • Vaccination
  • Healthcare services
  • Public law
  • Welfare state
  • Medical law
  • Hälsorätt

Status

Published

Project

  • Improved preparedness for future pandemics and other health crises through large-scale disease surveillance
  • The right to access healthcare services for asylum seekers

Research group

  • Health Law
  • Norma Research Programme
  • Human Rights Law
  • Public International Law
  • Law and Vulnerabilities

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0967-0742