After conducting community research, our members recognised there were a range of barriers preventing New Scots, especially asylum seekers, from accessing healthcare in Scotland. We found that although there is a gap in knowledge within the healthcare sector about the entitlements of migrants in Scotland, New Scots were less likely to advocate for themselves. This was mainly because of lack of available and accessible information on their rights and entitlements.
With the expansion of dispersal to new local authorities in Scotland, we were concerned that the lack of experience with New Scots may lead to an increase of violation of rights and entitlements. We believe it is important to arm people with knowledge, information, and facts about the system and what they can access as New Scots. This will empower people to be able to defend their rights, and confidently be able to point out their entitlements.
Our members have therefore have put together a toolkit for all New Scots detailing healthcare rights, explaining how the system works, who can help you advocate for yourself, and some tips, hacks and advice directly from members of our group based on their experiences with healthcare in Scotland.
Our resource is available online in English, Arabic, Sorani, Farsi, and Urdu. We are hoping to translate this into more languages, if you would like to help with this please get in touch.
JustCitizens is a project of JustRight Scotland, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC047818) which provides legal services through its limited liability partnership, JustRight Scotland LLP which trades as JustRight Scotland (SO305962).
This firm has been authorised to act as solicitors by the Law Society of Scotland (Registered No 53703).
