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Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France

BACKGROUND: In 2015, more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe. During their travels, refugees often face harsh conditions, violence and torture in transit countries, but there is a lack of quantitative evidence on their experiences. We present the results of a retrospective survey among refuge...

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Autores principales: Bouhenia, Malika, Farhat, Jihane Ben, Coldiron, Matthew E, Abdallah, Saif, Visentin, Delphine, Neuman, Michaël, Berthelot, Mathilde, Porten, Klaudia, Cohuet, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5881268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29325099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihx040
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author Bouhenia, Malika
Farhat, Jihane Ben
Coldiron, Matthew E
Abdallah, Saif
Visentin, Delphine
Neuman, Michaël
Berthelot, Mathilde
Porten, Klaudia
Cohuet, Sandra
author_facet Bouhenia, Malika
Farhat, Jihane Ben
Coldiron, Matthew E
Abdallah, Saif
Visentin, Delphine
Neuman, Michaël
Berthelot, Mathilde
Porten, Klaudia
Cohuet, Sandra
author_sort Bouhenia, Malika
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In 2015, more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe. During their travels, refugees often face harsh conditions, violence and torture in transit countries, but there is a lack of quantitative evidence on their experiences. We present the results of a retrospective survey among refugees in the ‘Jungle’ of Calais, France, to document their health problems and the violence they endured during their journeys. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional population-based survey in November and December 2015. The sample size was set at 402 individuals, and geospatial simple random sampling was used. We collected data on demographics, routes travelled, health status, violence and future plans. RESULTS: Departures from the country of origin increased beginning in September 2015. Sixty-one percent of respondents reported having at least one health problem, especially while in Calais. Overall, 65.6% (95% CI 60.3–70.6) experienced at least one violent event en route; 81.5% of refugees wanted to go to the UK. CONCLUSIONS: This first quantitative survey conducted among refugees in Europe provides important socio-demographic data on refugees living in Calais and describes the high rate of violence they encountered during their journeys. Similar documentation should be repeated throughout Europe in order to better respond to the needs of this vulnerable population.
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spelling pubmed-58812682018-04-05 Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France Bouhenia, Malika Farhat, Jihane Ben Coldiron, Matthew E Abdallah, Saif Visentin, Delphine Neuman, Michaël Berthelot, Mathilde Porten, Klaudia Cohuet, Sandra Int Health Original Articles BACKGROUND: In 2015, more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe. During their travels, refugees often face harsh conditions, violence and torture in transit countries, but there is a lack of quantitative evidence on their experiences. We present the results of a retrospective survey among refugees in the ‘Jungle’ of Calais, France, to document their health problems and the violence they endured during their journeys. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional population-based survey in November and December 2015. The sample size was set at 402 individuals, and geospatial simple random sampling was used. We collected data on demographics, routes travelled, health status, violence and future plans. RESULTS: Departures from the country of origin increased beginning in September 2015. Sixty-one percent of respondents reported having at least one health problem, especially while in Calais. Overall, 65.6% (95% CI 60.3–70.6) experienced at least one violent event en route; 81.5% of refugees wanted to go to the UK. CONCLUSIONS: This first quantitative survey conducted among refugees in Europe provides important socio-demographic data on refugees living in Calais and describes the high rate of violence they encountered during their journeys. Similar documentation should be repeated throughout Europe in order to better respond to the needs of this vulnerable population. Oxford University Press 2017-11 2018-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5881268/ /pubmed/29325099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihx040 Text en © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Original Articles
Bouhenia, Malika
Farhat, Jihane Ben
Coldiron, Matthew E
Abdallah, Saif
Visentin, Delphine
Neuman, Michaël
Berthelot, Mathilde
Porten, Klaudia
Cohuet, Sandra
Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title_full Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title_fullStr Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title_full_unstemmed Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title_short Quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in Calais, France
title_sort quantitative survey on health and violence endured by refugees during their journey and in calais, france
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5881268/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29325099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihx040
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