Public Campaign Yields Government Supported Health Clinic for Refugees and Migrants

July 9, 2008

After a successful public campaign to publicize the lack of government health services for refugees and migrant workers, veteran NIF grantee Physicians for Human Rights has reopened its Tel Aviv-Jaffa clinic. Physician for Human Rights’ new clinic in Jaffa will again operate after an agreement was reached with the Israeli Physicians Trade Union Movement and the Ministry of Health, which will also open a clinic in the Tel Aviv region to treat the growing number of refugees and migrant workers in Israel.

"We closed our clinic three months ago to protest the fact that the Israeli government was doing nothing to assist the growing number of migrants and refugees who needed medical treatment, often for serious illnesses," explained Ran Cohen of Physicians for Human Rights. “Withdrawing the only medical help that refugees were receiving was the only way that we could bring attention to the desperate situation."

A Physicians for Human Rights volunteer treats an African refugee.

"Our protest and the publicity it received has been successful," added Cohen. "The Physicians Union will open a second clinic in Tel Aviv, which will receive financial support from the Ministry of Health. We have also renewed agreements with Ichilov and Wolfson Hospitals for the voluntary treatment of refugees and migrants that we refer to them."

Over the past ten years, the Physicians for Human Rights clinic, operated by volunteers, has treated nearly 20,000 patients, including foreign workers without medical coverage and refugees. But with the arrival of several thousand African refugees in Israel in recent years, the clinic has been overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of uninsured patients and does not have the equipment and resources to meet the demand or those suffering from more serious illnesses.

Following pressure by NIF grantee Coalition for Refugees, a proposed new law will be introduced in the Knesset after the summer recess that would extend government medical insurance to migrant workers and refugees.