“When Are You Going Back to Your Country?”: The Refugee Phenomenon and the Complexity of Healthcare Services in South Africa

ABSTRACT Refugees’ health is linked to various factors, which explains why their life is characterised by difficult challenges. In the midst of these challenges, refugees find hope and strive for improved well-being. Forced migration in Africa obliges us to re-examine migratory trends to determine how they are linked to the health of forced migrants. This paper highlights migration and health issues from the context of diaconal praxis. The paper demonstrates how forced migrants are often the victims of poor health conditions and that they generally encounter major problems in hospitals simply because they are refugees. It also provides evidence that refugees face various challenges in obtaining appropriate care due to medical xenophobia and attitudinal treatment by most health workers. This paper calls for radical diaconal action. The work is based on a qualitative piece of research conducted with refugees from sub-Saharan Africa through a series of semi-structured interviews.