This report summarizes the main findings and policy implications from the eight concurrent sessions which took place in the February 2010 Research Conference on Healthcare for the Uninsured and Undocumented. Ontario is seen to have a high-quality health system, free and accessible to all. However, significant numbers of people do not have OHIP cards or health insurance for various reasons and face major barriers to accessing the healthcare they need.

The article "Undocumented Migrant Women: Gender-based violence in Europe’s fight against irregular migration", written by Eve Geddie (Acting Director of PICUM - Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrantshas) has been recently published in the magazine Choices (IPPF). Described as “the most pervasive yet least recognised human rights abuse in the world”, violence against women is a manifestation of gender-based inequality and discrimination. 

The IOM Gender Issues Coordination (GIC) has recently published the latest  issue of the Gender and Migration News Bulletin. 

This issue features, among other themes: Migration for Domestic Work, The Case of Domestic Workers in Costa Rica, Lebanon: Fair Deal for Domestic Workers?, Bolivia: Women’s Remittances Come at High Cost, Bangladesh: Examining the Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Female Migrants, Honduras: IOM Study Recommends Greater Focus on Adult Female Victims of Trafficking, Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Boys and Male Adolescents in Central America, Forced Marriage in the Sierra Leone Civil War: Beyond Sexual Exploitation, Skilled Female Migrant Care Workers Negotiating the 4th Shift. 

(Irishtimes.com) Greater awareness among healthcare workers in Ireland is needed to help women who have undergone ‘female circumcision’, writes Catherine Reilly. More than 2,500 migrant women in Ireland are estimated to have suffered some form of female genital mutilation (FGM) in their countries, according to AkiDwA, a national network of African and migrant women. Social customs, control over female sexuality, marriageability and religion (although no faith obliges FGM) are commonly cited motivators behind a practice usually carried out by local women using basic items like blades and scissors.

FGM is most prevalent in Africa, with vast country-to-country variations: it’s very common in Egypt, Sierra Leone and Guinea, for example, yet quite rare in Cameroon and Uganda.