Greece

With regard to Greek migrants/refugees, including children, young people and their parents, there is little relevant data collected about them entering the health and care system. There is a lack of documentation of vaccination and medical history of Greek migrants. ²Hargreaves Sally, Nellums Laura B, Ravensbergen Sofanne J, Friedland Jon S, Stienstra Ymkje, on behalf of the ESGITM Working Group on Vaccination in Migrants. Divergent approaches in the vaccination of recently arrived migrants to Europe: a survey of national experts from 32 countries, 2017. Euro Surveill. 2018;23(41):pii=1700772. Migrants and refugees in Greece experience barriers in communication with healthcare professionals due to intercultural communication difficulties.³www.euvetcare.eu/sites/default/files/O1_Review%20of%20existing%20training%20opportunities_13%2012%202019_Final.pdf  Healthcare professionals who are trained on provision of health care to culturally diverse patients are able to provide vaccination services to an increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse parents and their children, leading to improved service delivery and enhanced access to services. Until recently, migrants/refugees were issued with a Social Security Number (AMKA) which enabled them to access health care in Greece. This has been suspended, however, due to a change in government. In January 2020 the Ministry of Migration and Asylum decided to provide migrants/refugees who applied for asylum with a provisional social security number. Provisional Insurance and Health Care Number (PAAYPA) is not the same as the Social Security Number (AMKA). PAAYPA ensures the asylum seekers’ access to healthcare, social security and the labor market following the submission of their application. If their application is accepted PAAYPA will turn into AMKA, while in case of rejection PAAYPA will be automatically deactivated. Last but not least, migrants without documents may be discouraged from accessing government-associated health services, because of their links with immigration authorities. The Mig-HealthCare project revealed that in 10 MS during their interactions with healthcare services 60.1% of migrants/refugees stated that they needed translation always or most of the time, 61.0% were helped by a professional, 15.3% by a family member and 7.9% by nobody.