Migration is part of the human story.

Doctors of the World stands with people on the move as their fundamental rights come under threat.

Migrant rights are human rights

Today, rising hostility and xenophobia leave migrants and refugees facing greater danger and fewer places to turn for safety and care.

With 117 million people displaced worldwide, 40% of them children, it’s more important than ever to protect their right to health by creating safe spaces for care.

 

What is the right to health?

 

The right to health is more than access to medical treatment — it is the right of every person to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental well‑being. As affirmed in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it includes the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, protection from discrimination, and access to the underlying conditions of health, such as clean water, nutritious food, safe housing, and education.

How is the right to health under threat for migrants and displaced people?

Too often, migrants, refugees, and other displaced people are excluded from health systems, denied reproductive care, or left without treatment for chronic conditions. Upholding the right to health means ensuring that no one is left behind—regardless of income, legal status, or place of origin.

 

Where health meets human rights

Every day, in every corner of the world, men, women, and children leave their homes, fleeing violence, poverty, and instability. Yet for many, the dangers don’t end with the journey. Migrants and refugees face detention, deportation, and shrinking resources, and healthcare is too often the first thing denied. Families go without treatment, women without reproductive care, and children without even basic health services.

Doctors of the World steps in to close that gap, defending human rights through safe, dignified care that meets people wherever they are.

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Protecting rights with safe spaces for care

Our teams defend the right to health on the road, at the border, in conflict zones, and beyond—providing urgent care, bearing witness, and delivering essential services in the most challenging and risky conditions.

How our teams protect the right to health:

  • Access to care regardless of status: People on the move are often denied basic health services; we provide medical and mental health support without discrimination.
  • Sexual and reproductive rights: Women and girls in crisis must have safe deliveries and reproductive care that protects their health and dignity.
  • Access to clean water and food: Safe water, nutritious food, and other necessities are essential to survival, especially for those displaced or in remote areas.
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North and South America

Across the Americas, we have provided dignified care for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, who face perilous routes and limited access to fundamental rights like health care, food, and safe water—conditions especially severe in the Darién Gap and along the Colombia-Panama corridor, where Doctors of the World provides essential medical care and shelter support. In El Paso, Texas Doctors of the World’s shelter-based clinics have offered medical, mental health, and legal services regardless of status

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Middle East

In Gaza and Syria, years of conflict have made sexual and reproductive health care dangerously hard to access. Doctors of the World provides lifesaving maternal and reproductive health services to women and children who would otherwise go without care. Local women health workers play a critical role—ensuring that, even in crisis, care is delivered safely, with dignity, and in ways families trust.

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The Sahel

In Africa’s Sahel, access to fundamental rights like food, water, and medical care is under extreme threat from state violence, climate-driven scarcity, and armed conflict. In Niger, thousands of people—including many children—are being forcibly expelled into the desert, exposed to dangerous heat, violence, and life-threatening deprivation. Doctors of the World teams have treated severe dehydration, malnutrition, injuries, and trauma as people arrive after days in these brutal conditions.

Giving care is a tangible act of human rights.

With programs in 70 countries reaching 9 million people — and 97% of funds going to field programs — your support makes a real difference.

Stories from the field

We invite you to step into the stories of migrants, refugees, and the health workers who stand with them. Their experiences show why health is a human right—and why access to care, dignity, and protection matters wherever people are on the move.

Make a Donation

Give Care. Defend Rights.

Doctors of the World USA is a global health and humanitarian organization that delivers medical care—and defends the right to it—where health systems are strained, collapsing, or out of reach.

Backed by the Médecins du Monde international network and rooted in local partnerships, we deliver medical care that meets urgent and long-term health needs, working toward lasting change in more than 70 countries.

Doctors of the World USA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your safe and secure online donation is fully tax-deductible. EIN: 35-242-6718