Ethical dilemmas of mental healthcare for migrants and refugees

This review will discuss the current development of ethical dilemmas in psychiatry in the care of migrants and refugees. The world is in times of increasing conflicts and disasters, which are leading to increased migration and flight. In dealing with patients, psychiatrists have their own codes of ethics. The purpose of developing codes of ethics is to serve educational and regulatory functions and to provide explicit and visible standards for the professional conduct of psychiatrists.

The codes of ethics are more recognised and required as standards in the form of guiding ethical principles on duties and rights as well as explicit rules. However, in the case of migrants and refugees, ethical principles are suspended in many places, exposing patients to different barriers.

Many National Psychiatric Associations have adopted the World Psychiatric Association or European Psychiatric Association Code of Ethics for Psychiatry. However, migrants and refugees still do not have the same rights and opportunities to access mental healthcare as well as preventive measures and thus equal treatment due to various barriers. Not only is equal treatment suspended in comparison to native patients, but also access to care between migrants and refugees from different regions of origin for various reasons. This invalidates the ethical principles.