Antonio Vitorino, the director-general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has told the European Parliament that getting coronavirus vaccines to refugees, displaced people and migrants in the European Union (EU) was important to ensure that everyone was indeed safe.
“No one is safe until everybody is safe,” the United Nations migration agency boss told the European Parliament this Thursday.
He also said that if migrants and refugees got the vaccine it would guarantee the safety of their host communities. “When we have now news about a vaccine, the challenge that EU European member states are confronted with, is to guarantee access to the vaccine to everybody that is in your territory, not just your citizens, but also all the refugees, displaced people and migrants that are in Europe,” he said.
Recently, there has been news of highly effective COVID-19 vaccines by companies in Germany and the United States of America.