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INTRODUCTION
Turkish Red Crescent Society (TRCS) conducted Vaccination Screening Analysis under the Community Based Migration Programme (CBMP) in February 2021 to find out the vaccination status of the individuals aged 65 and above; assess their knowledge about the vaccination process in Turkey; and identify the challenges they face in accessing to COVID-19 vaccines. This survey is a follow up study on the Vaccination Screening Analysis. Qualitative and quantitative data used in this study were collected via phone interviews with 597 individuals from 13 provinces. The respondents of this survey are refugees* who have been involved in the activities of TRCS community health centers. Findings show that only 66 of the respondents (11%) got vaccinated.
This suggests that refugees aged 65 and above got vaccinated at a low level, even though they are in the target group of the vaccination program. 61 (94%) of the vaccinated respondents reported that they did not face any difficulties in accessing vaccination services. Among the group of 531 survey respondents (89%) who have not been vaccinated yet, 281 of them (53%) stated that they are not willing to be vaccinated or they are hesitant while 119 respondents (22%) indicated that they are willing to get vaccinated and aware of being in the target group but cannot get vaccination appointment. The findings yield important results about refugee community’s level of knowledge about the vaccination process, and the information need around it. The results indicate that some of the survey respondents have lack of knowledge about how to access COVID-19 vaccines, and some believe that they do not need to get vaccinated.