General information The objective of the European Migration Network (EMN) is to meet the information needs of the European Community institutions and of Member States’ (MS) authorities by providing up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable information on migration and asylum, with a view to support policy-making in the European Union in these areas. The first initiative to its establishment came from the 2001 Laeken European Council which invited the European Commission to consider the "development of a European system for exchanging information on asylum, migration and countries of origin". As a result, the European Migration Network was launched in 2003 as a pilot project and subsequently as a preparatory action. This led to the creation of a permanent structure under the legal framework of the Council Decision 2008/381/EC adopted on 14 May 2008.

Rozšírenie schengenského priestoru prináša členským štátom Európskej únie pozdĺž východnej hranice nové migračné výzvy v oblasti zdravotnej starostlivosti, a to aj v nadväznosti na už existujúce nedostatky v politikách na poli zdravia a migrácie v Európe. Systém zdravotníctva a manažment hranice musia reagovať na požiadavky ochrany verejného zdravia, zdravotné potreby a práva migrantov, ako aj na nutnosť zabezpečiť ochranu zdravia pracovníkov na hraniciach.