On July 23, we co-hosted the event “Migration Policy and Health Equity: New Perspectives” alongside Fundación FÜNDEC—a space that brought together professionals from the public sector, academia, and civil society to reflect on how migration policies impact health, racial equity, and human rights. As a result of the gathering, we launched the Tenerife Declaration on the Right to Health of Racialized Migrants.
The declaration outlines a clear roadmap to recognize and protect the right to health for migrant populations through an explicitly anti-racist lens. It highlights the urgency of centering racial equity, exposing structural inequalities, and pushing for political and social commitments that build genuinely inclusive and just healthcare systems.
The opening panel of the event, titled “Who Are We Letting Die?”, set the tone for a discussion on structural racism and institutional responsibility for preventable deaths caused by healthcare exclusion. The Spanish Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, emphasized that migration policy is also health policy. He said that universal healthcare isn’t guaranteed by law alone, but by how it’s implemented—and announced that the Ministry is working on new regulations to improve healthcare access for migrants, highlighting the need to eliminate bureaucratic barriers such as the requirement for proof of residence.
Francisco García, Rector of the University of La Laguna, underscored the role universities must play as “mediators of truth” and as critical voices against the dominant “Fortress Europe” narrative. María Dolores Padrón, the Canary Islands Ombudswoman, denounced the situation faced by unaccompanied migrant minors, who are left without support or resources once they turn 18, despite legal obligations to prepare them for adult life. She warned of the lack of adequate structures and legislation in the region to ensure decent care and reminded attendees that health is not merely a technical issue—it is a matter of human dignity.
During the event, Salud por Derecho presented the report “Migration Policy in the UE as a Global Health Crisis”, authored by our colleague Jaime Manzano. The report explores how the EU’s migration control strategies are having devastating effects on migrant health by prioritizing deterrence and and containment over human rights. Jaime highlighted how the outsourcing of borders has turned access to healthcare into a selective privilege and warned of the EU’s role in producing structural violence, exclusion, and preventable deaths. “What we’re seeing is a political model that normalizes health exclusion for part of the population—disguised as efficient migration management,” he said.
Sani Ladan, vice president of FÜNDEC, denounced the “outsourcing of the right to health” through European policies that delegate migration control to third countries. Sharing the personal story of his friend Hamed, a Cameroonian migrant trapped for years at the southern border, he exposed the physical and psychological violence endured along migratory routes—violence that is systematically ignored. He argued that one doesn’t need to reach Europe to be excluded from the right to health; the border itself acts as a filter that determines who deserves to live. He called for health to no longer be treated as a technical privilege, but defended as a deeply racialized political right. “You cannot heal trauma with indifference, nor protect health while funding persecution. We cannot speak of human rights while trading them for oil, control, and diplomatic silence,” he concluded.
Beyond the opening panel, the event featured two additional roundtables (available here) that explored health inequalities linked to migration policies and the mental health impacts of migration. The discussions brought together public officials—including the Director General for Public Health and Health Equity at the Spanish Ministry of Health, and the Director General of Mental Health and Addictions for the Canary Islands Health Service—alongside civil society actors and academics, all sharing insights and proposals from various perspectives.
Ultimately, the day revealed the deep gap between the rhetoric of human rights and their actual implementation in Europe. Participants agreed on the need for bold, coordinated political action to transform migration policies through a lens of social justice and health equity. They also called for the creation of permanent spaces for reflection, community action, and institutional commitment to ensure the right to health for all—regardless of legal status or country of origin.
