PATIENTS NOT PASSPORTS: Migrants Access to Healthcare During the Coronavirus Crisis | June 2020 Many of them are receiving around £35 a week. So they’re paying a week’s income to be able to get the internet. The poorest are paying the most for the internet. And it’s really because they can’t get contracts, because they can’t have bank accounts, because they haven’t got the proof that banks would want - their passports have been taken away by the Home Office, or they don’t have proof of address, and so on.” Our research indicates that many migrants lack the material means to access health services during the coronavirus crisis. As the lockdown forces many services to operate remotely, those with limited access to the internet or phone credit can no longer use them. When migrants do contact services, they are not offered the appropriate language support to be able to access care. Below, we discuss the impact of language barriers and digital exclusions on the lack of information and guidance, the limited access to services, and lack of support services, in turn. 3.2.1 Information and guidance Of primary concern to a number of respondents was both the lack of guidance from the government in languages other than English, and the delay in it being made available. This includes guidance on social distancing measures, Covid-19 symptoms, or the status of health services during coronavirus and how to access them. The lack of such translated guidance has meant that NGOs and other community organisations have attempted to fill this gap. Several respondents cited the vital translated guidance produced by Doctors of the World. One respondent reports that: Lack of translated information getting out to clients on a mass scale has prevented this message getting across in a timely manner. PHE [Public Health England] and Gov.uk have minimal languages translated into advice.” NGOs, including frontline migrant services and community organisations, have worked to translate much of the government guidance into languages spoken widely by the communities they serve. However, the government’s rapidly changing and shifting guidance has presented huge challenges for those trying to disseminate this information to migrant communities. These organisations are not resourced to regularly translate information, given the time it takes and the difficulty in disseminating this information while social distancing. Also, many community centres and spaces, where people might traditionally acquire information, have been closed. Most information is only available in major languages, and is hard to get in smaller community languages. Also many of my patients are illiterate in their mother tongues so have to rely on verbal communication, which is not always available.” Where translated guidance is available, respondents expressed doubts as to whether it is reaching the migrant communities who need it. One respondent noted that “resources [are] available in different languages, but distribution is relied on by staff and key workers in the field rather than accommodation providers”. Several respondents find that a lack of access to the internet and/or telephones has been made even more problematic during the pandemic, since most information has been distributed digitally. 21