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Vaccination against COVID-19 is an essential public health tool for pandemic control. Inclusion of migrants in COVID-19 vaccination is not only ethically necessary from a right-to-health perspective but also technically indispensable for disease control. This study aimed to characterize the inclusion of international migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in COVID-19 vaccination policies in Latin American countries that have the greatest recent increase in the reception of migrants.We conducted a content analysis of public policy documents issued between March 11, 2020, and June 30, 2022 by the Ministries of Health of seven countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. Documents were located through Ministries of Health web pages, references in scientific literature, and the Pan American Health Organization's Information Platform on Health and Migration in the Americas. A content analysis was performed of the documents that were located, along six dimensions: migrants' right to vaccination, temporality of vaccination, administrative discretion, policies to facilitate access, language or cultural considerations, and normative, ethical or technical justifications provided.Eighty-six public policy documents were reviewed. Their contents showed that none of the countries explicitly excluded migrants from vaccination, nor did they explicitly define restrictions on this population. One barrier that was detected was to require identity documents in order to be vaccinated or to receive a vaccination certificate, which could be difficult for migrants to obtain. Few countries defined actions to facilitate or promote the vaccination of migrants. The documents that mentioned justifications for vaccinating migrants presented reasons that were mainly based on the recognition of the right to health, the principle of non-discrimination and equity.The countries studied generally had inclusive policies but were limited in terms of dealing with potential barriers to access. The lack of mechanisms to guarantee the right to health is a limitation that countries in the region should address.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the health policies for international migrants in Mexico and Colombia. Methods: A descriptive comparative study of the documents issued by the national-level government of the most recent past administrations in each country (2012–2018 for Mexico, 2013–2018 for Colombia) was conducted. We identified the documents' objectives, strategies, and evaluation of results, and the representation of international migrants and migrant health in the policy. Results: Both countries situate health care policies for international migrants in a human rights framework. In both, migrants are entitled to health care, but access is limited by migration status. The main contrasts are the focus on different migrant populations (Mexican migrants in the Mexico-US migration circuit in Mexico; Venezuelan immigrants and Colombians returning from Venezuela in Colombia), and the discursive framing of policies as a response to the crisis in Colombia. As a result, while concrete actions are detailed in the Colombian policies, most documents in Mexico are limited to general strategies. These differences can be explained by the context in which each set of policies was issued: a relatively stable Mexico-US migration flow in Mexico, and the reception of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Venezuela in a very short time in Colombia. Conclusions: Tradition in matters of migration, and the current migration context, influence health policies for migrant populations.