Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Medical Country of Origin Information (MedCOI) Report on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

MedCOI as a project was initiated to improve access to medical Country of Origin Information for national migration and asylum authorities in Europe. This project was transferred to EASO between 2017 and 2020, to become EASO business as usual as from 2021. While as under the MedCOI project, implemented by The Netherlands and Belgium, the Country of Origin Information reports on the health care situation were not publicly available, EASO intends to publish all MedCOI reports on the EASO COI Portal and website. This is the first such MedCOI report published by EASO.

The report starts with a general introduction to the country and the healthcare system organisation. Separate sections are dedicated to human resources in healthcare, the pharmaceutical sector, blood transfusion policies, patient pathways, insurance aspects and out-of-pocket expenditure. Lastly, separate chapters contain accessibility information on specific disease groups: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, haematology, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, nephrology, neurology, psychiatry, pulmonology, and finally tuberculosis.

This report was drafted by International SOS (Intl.SOS) and reviewed by experts of the following organisations: EASO, MedCOI Sector, Third Country Research Unit, Asylum Knowledge Centre; Belgian Desk on Accessibility (BDA) at the Belgian Immigration Department; Department for Asylum and Migration Policy at the International and European Affairs Unit within the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic; Country of Origin Information (COI) Unit at the Ministry of Immigration and Integration within the Danish Immigration Service; and COI Information Desk / Documentation of COI documents and case law at the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

The report was written according to the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019). The report is based on carefully selected sources of information. All sources used are referenced.

The report can be downloaded from the following link: https://coi.easo.europa.eu/administration/easo/PLib/2020_DRC_MedCOI_report.pdf