Peer-reviewed article
Healthcare Access and Outcomes for Refugee Women in Transit: A Scoping Review of Facilitators and Barriers in South and Southeast Asia.
Fernando G, Khafiyya AN, Tricesaria AAID, Watterson J, Puspita SS ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This scoping review examined healthcare access and health outcomes for refugee women in transit across South and Southeast Asia, focusing on Bangladesh, Thailand-Myanmar border, and Malaysia. The review identified 14 studies documenting major health issues including sexual and reproductive health, sexual and gender-based violence, and mental health problems among Rohingya, Karen, and Chin refugee communities. Key barriers to healthcare included distance, lack of services, spousal consent requirements, costs, and cultural stigma. The review found that targeted interventions such as UNHCR documentation, camp-based clinics, female health workers, and counselling programs can improve health outcomes and healthcare utilization.
Key points
- Major health issues among transit refugee women included sexual and reproductive health, family planning, HIV transmission, sexual and gender-based violence, and mental health problems
- Barriers to healthcare access included distance and availability of services, spousal consent requirements, out-of-pocket health expenditure, cultural and religious beliefs, and stigmatization
- These barriers contributed to poor contraceptive usage, inadequate family planning, low HIV health knowledge, and psychological distress
- Targeted interventions including UNHCR cards, health clinics within camps, female health workers, and counselling programs positively influenced health outcomes and healthcare utilization
- The majority of included studies focused on Rohingya, Karen, and Chin refugee communities in Bangladesh, Thailand-Myanmar border, and Malaysia
Limitations
This is a scoping review synthesizing existing literature rather than collecting new data, so it reflects gaps and biases in the published evidence base. The review covers only South and Southeast Asia and may not represent experiences of transit refugee women in other regions.
Abstract
Forced displacement has reached unprecedented levels globally, with women and girls comprising over half of the refugee population. In South and Southeast Asia, transit refugee women face unique health challenges, yet their health experiences and needs remain underexplored and underserved. This review explores the existing evidence on the health experiences and healthcare access of transit refugee women in these regions. A search was conducted using PubMed [MEDLINE], Scopus, Google Scholar, alongside UNHCR, WHO, and IOM databases between October 2023 and January 2024. Peer-reviewed and grey literature published from 2013 to 2024 that analysed health outcomes and experiences of transit refugee women in South and Southeast Asia were included. A narrative synthesis was used to identify the major themes related to the health outcomes and healthcare access of transit refugee women. Fourteen articles met the inclusion criteria, of which a majority of the studies were from Bangladesh, Thailand-Myanmar border, and Malaysia, mainly drawing insights from Rohingya, Karen, and Chin communities. Key health issues included sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, contraceptive use, HIV transmission, sexual and gender-based violence, and mental health. Distance and availability of health services, spousal consent for health-seeking, out-of-pocket health expenditure, cultural and religious beliefs, and stigmatization were barriers to accessing healthcare. These barriers may contribute to foregoing contraceptive usage, poor family planning, poor HIV-related health knowledge transmission, high psychological distress, and poor mental health outcomes. However, targeted interventions such as having the UNHCR card, the availability of health clinics within camps, recruiting female health workers, provision of counselling and health education programs, can positively influence health outcomes, healthcare seeking and utilization behaviours, and health knowledge transmission. Transit refugee women in South and Southeast Asia face significant challenges due to unmet health needs and limited healthcare access. These insights highlight the need for future health research, programs and policy action to better integrate targeted, gender-responsive interventions that can enhance health access of this vulnerable subgroup regionally.