Medical assistance for international protection applicants. Health as an universal right?

Abstract

According to the observation No. 14 of the Committee of Economical, Social and Cultural rights, health is an essential human right in the execution of other human rights. For this reason, every human being has the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health that allow them living with dignity. In the same line, that right is recognized to every individual in the article 25 of the UDHR; the article 12 of ICESCR and the article 35 of CFREU. In spite of this fact, the current migratory crisis, in addition to the consequences of the recent economical crisis, set to debate the recognition of that right, conditioning the payment of healthcare assistance for certain groups, including those that concern us here: migrants in irregular situation. Even though both, these and the international protection seeker have emergency assistance guaranteed, our aim here is to scope how that limitation, which takes advantage of the complex nature of that right, questions something even more worrying: individuals dignity. For achieving that goal, we analyzed the controverted sentence 139/2016 of the Spanish Constitutional Court concluding with a close related point: Could the healthcare right be one of the limits that could lead to an immigrant expelling?