Handbook on using the ECDC preparedness checklist tool to strengthen preparedness against communicable disease outbreaks at migrant reception/detention centres

The increasing number of people entering the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) as asylum seekers and irregular migrants has challenged public health authorities to provide relevant, proportionate and appropriate services, including communicable disease-related services. As a consequence, migrant reception facilities in many EU/EEA Member States have the potential to be overwhelmed by higher numbers of migrants than the sites were originally designed for. Although migrants entering the EU/EEA tend to be in relatively good health, crowded living situations could favour the spread of communicable diseases. As in other institutional settings, migrant holding centres face specific challenges in preventing and controlling communicable disease transmission, although there is no clear indication as to which communicable diseases are more likely to occur. In addition, there is no consensus on whether it is more urgent to invest in human resources, medicines and vaccines, sanitation and disinfection or physical infrastructure in order to prevent/control communicable disease outbreaks in the context of sudden large influxes of migrants. In order to support EU/EEA Member States in improving preparedness at migrant hosting sites where there is the potential for sudden influxes of migrants, ECDC has commissioned the development of a preparedness checklist tool. The tool will help establish a quick and flexible evidence-based approach to assessing reception/detention centre needs for communicable disease control, particularly in the event of a sudden influx of migrants. The checklist tool described in this handbook is intended for EU/EEA public health authorities who need to assess the capacity for communicable disease prevention and control at migrant reception/detention centres hosting migrants for weeks/months (medium-term) in order to identify gaps and set priorities for development. Using this tool, the aim is to monitor and support capacity development to prevent the onset and improve the management of communicable disease outbreaks at medium-term migration reception/detention centres, both on a day-to-day basis and in the event of a sudden influx of migrants. This handbook is published jointly with an Excel prototype of the tool. The prototype comes with pre-designed indicators and embedded automated analysis functions. Both have been designed to be easily adaptable to the requirements of Member States.