The UK government announced that undocumented migrants can now register with their doctors for a COVID-19 vaccine, and they don’t have to worry about being ejected by the UK Home Office.
The UK has suffered so much under the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 112,000 people registered as having died with or from the virus since March 2020. But the country’s vaccination program is the fastest so far in all of Europe.
According to the UK government, more than 12.2 million people in the United Kingdom have already received their first vaccine shot. The government is now aiming to vaccinate 15 million with their first dose by February 15, 2021.
Intending to reach herd immunity and to ease the strict lockdown measures under which everyone in the UK is currently living, the British government announced that undocumented migrants could register for a vaccine without fearing the consequences of their undeclared migration status.
Anyone Can Register Regardless of Immigration Status
A UK government source told Daily Mail over the weekend that everyone needs to get the vaccine for the sake of everyone’s safety.
The news agency Agence France Presse, AFP, also reported that anyone in Britain could register with doctors and access free, frontline medical care, regardless of their immigration status.
A government spokesperson told AFP, that those registered with a GP are being contacted at the earliest opportunity. They are working closely with partners and external organizations to reach those who are not registered with a GP to ensure they are also offered the vaccine.
Some have estimated that the number of undocumented migrants could be as high as 1.3 million people in the United Kingdom, according to the data of AFP.
The British Medical Association or BMA has been worried that many undocumented migrants would be scared to come forward. In the past, the government has required the National Health Service or NHS to report those without any defined migration status.
The BMA added that the so-called immigration data-sharing between the health service and the government should be suspended during the coronavirus pandemic. The chair of the BMA ethics committee, John Chisholm, told AFP in a statement that for the vaccination program to be successful is crucial that they get as many people vaccinated as possible.
Chisholm said, “it is therefore vital that absolutely no barriers are preventing migrant groups coming forward for vaccination.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds from Amnesty UK told the BBC that numerous undocumented migrants might be too scared to access healthcare nevertheless.
Valdez-Symonds explained that previously “it has been the message, very clearly, from the government that access to health care is something that leads to information being passed about them to the immigration authorities.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds said that the government would have to work to ensure that undocumented migrants believed them in this case.
According to a Daily Mail report from February 7, 2021, this does not mean that undocumented migrants would be able to jump the queue for vaccines or use the scheme as a way to get other rights. It will only mean that the Home Office ” takes no action if they register with a GP to be inoculated.”