In the last six years, Colombia has received an exceptionally high number of incoming people on the move, fleeing from neighbouring Venezuela, including around 1 million Venezuelan nationals in an irregular situation. 1 Against this unique and challenging background, this article aims to ascertain the extent to which the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Colombia and that of United Nations' human rights treaty bodies and InterAmerican institutions are synergetic and supportive of the idea that the right to health must be equitably accessible for irregular migrants and subgroups of the same. The case law of this social rights-friendly, transformative and relatively accessible Constitutional Court provides useful insights into both the difficulties of implementing 'beyond minimalist' approaches to the rights of irregular migrants in a middle-income country and the unusually influential but selective role of international human rights law and the comments of treaty bodies in its findings. For this case study, I also systematise applicable arguments of UN and InterAmerican human rights law (also here referred to as 'human rights law') and demonstrate that they are normative frameworks capable of pitching the right to health of irregular migrants beyond access to urgent treatment by integrating arguments based on core rights and vulnerability into a primary health care approach to public health that 'brings promotion and prevention, cure and care together'. 2 KEYWORDS: right to health, primary health care, irregular migrants, children, women, international and InterAmerican human rights law, Colombia, Venezuela(n), constitutional law Methodology, scope of the study and preliminary definitionsTable 1. The CCC's cases under scrutiny Case No. Applicant(s) Claim(s) T-239/17 Male adult with cerebrovascular haemorrhages, lung infection and kidney failure Access to urgent (post-emergency) treatment SU677/17 Pregnant/lactating female adolescent Access to prenatal check-ups, delivery assistance and child health care (of the mother and the child) T-705/17 Parent on behalf of her child with a lymphoma Access to diagnostic testing (CAT test) T-210/18 Woman with post-surgical and oncological care needs (1); Child with giant scrotal hernia (2) Access to necessary diagnostic testing and treatment T-348/18 Male adult, HIV-positive Access to necessary treatment T-025/19 Male adult, HIV-positive Access to necessary treatment T-074/19 Pregnant/lactating, female Access to necessary maternal care T-178/19 Public servants on behalf of newborn child Affiliation with the health care system to access necessary care T-197/19 Male adult with skin cancer Access to necessary care T-403/19 Female adult with breast cancer Access to necessary care T-452/19 Female adult (1, 2, 3), one elderly (2); Child with cancer (4) Access to necessary health care (1, 2), mental health care (3), and diagnostic testing (CAT test) (4) T-246/20 Female adult, HIV-positive Access to necessary treatment T-275/20 Child with severe neurological issues Right to ...

Over the last 7 years, a multidimensional crisis in Venezuela has resulted in massive emigration. Over 7 million have fled the country, with more than 2.4 million seeking to settle in Colombia. Of these, as of 2021, more than 1 million were undocumented, but the situation has started to change with the implementation of an ambitious migrant regularisation scheme. Regularisation promises access to comprehensive healthcare, full educational opportunities and the formal labour market. Securing these social determinants of health is critical because social inequalities produce health inequalities—that is, systematic health differences that are preventable and thus unjust. Social medicine, social epidemiology and international human rights law agree on this, yet law-focused studies of health equity initiatives remain rare. Aiming to reverse this, we examine Colombia’s response to Venezuelan migration, including its recent migrant regularisation initiative, which was introduced in part to comply with the country’s obligations under international human rights law. The examination foregrounds what we are calling ‘legal literacy’, testing the hypothesis that advancing health equity involves asking more and better questions about international human rights law.

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In our globalised world, where inequality is deepening and migration movements are increasing, states continue to maintain strong regulatory control over immigration, health and social policies. Arguments based on state sovereignty can be employed to differentiate irregular migrants from other groups and reduce their right to physical and mental health to the provision of emergency medical care, even where resources are available. Drawing on the enabling and constraining factors of human rights law and public health, this book explores the scope and limits of the right to health of migrants in irregular situations, in international and European human rights law. Addressing these peoples' health solely with an exceptional medical paradigm is inconsistent with the special attention granted to people in vulnerable situations and non-discrimination in human rights, the emerging rights-based approach to disability, the social priorities of public health and the interdependence of human rights.