The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers-A Narrative Review of the Literature.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors affecting refugees and asylum seekers mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A narrative review of available international research literature from January 2020 to June 2021 was conducted to identify these factors. RESULTS: Seven factors were identified pre-existing physical health vulnerabilities, pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities, environmental, social, cultural-specific, economic and legal/welfare challenges. CONCLUSION: Multiple interacting bio-psycho-socio-economic-cultural-ecological factors lead to greater impact of COVID-19 pandemic on refugee and asylum seekers wellbeing than the general population.