Asylum seekers and migrants with disabilities are particularly susceptible to intersectional discrimination. In 2019, we prepared a report on intersectional discrimination that included the specific issues of migrants with disabilities. Below is an excerpt of the report.
Lack of structures and policies
Asylum seekers and migrants with disabilities are also particularly susceptible to intersectional discrimination. In the survey “Migrants, speak up” conducted by the European Network Against Racism, a migrant explained that there are no set infrastructures and policies to help migrants with disabilities.
One migrant with disabilities reported:
I need to have disability papers. However, in Germany no one cares about disabled migrants, no one questions whether you are disabled or healthy…They wrote that I am fit and healthy even though one of my feet and two toes on the other have been amputated.
Another comment indicates that migrants have not received proper support for their physical and psychosocial disabilities for as long as eight years:
I’ve been living in Greece for 8 years now. My situation is very bad. My mother and one of my brothers are disabled, while the other one is mentally ill. We need help. We live in
a very hard state, with no health care and no proper roof to protect us.
Recommendations of UN experts
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities specifically addressed the situation of refugees and asylum seekers when it reviewed the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by States Parties. It notes the importance of the accessibility of refugee status determination procedures, equal access to disability support schemes and benefits and incorporation of disability in refugee and asylum legislation.
Example of recommendations adopted by the CRPD Committee in relation to refugees and asylum seekers with disabilities in Cyprus
15. The Committee is deeply concerned about the precarious situation of refugees and asylum-seeking persons with disabilities allowed by the State party and also notes with concern that refugee status determination procedures are not accessible. While noting the indication by the State party delegation that refugees with disabilities are entitled to the same disability support schemes and benefits — including wheelchairs, care and information — as Cypriot citizens with disabilities, the Committee also notes with concern that equal access to these support schemes and benefits is not available for all refugees and asylum seekers. Furthermore, the Committee notes with concern that, in the Refugees Law, refugees with disabilities are referred to as “persons with special needs”, a subcategory of “vulnerable persons”, which constitutes an approach that may hamper the application of a human rights-based approach.
16. The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure the accessibility of all refugee status determination procedures;
(b) Ensure an adequate standard of living, including access to disability support schemes and allowances in law and in practice for all non-nationals with disabilities residing in the State party on an equal basis with Cypriot citizens;
(c) Incorporate disability, and a human-rights-based approach to disability, in the Refugees Law and all other relevant refugee and asylum legislation, policies and programmes;
(d) Ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and endorse the 2016 Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action.