Migrants

Rome, November 19, 2009 -- New Italian government policies to curb the influx of migrants have led to a sharp decrease in the number of migrants and refugees arriving by boat to Lampedusa, Italy. As a result, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is withdrawing its team from the island. Between May and October 2008, more than 21,000 migrants and refugees landed on Lampedusa after a perilous journey across the Mediterranean, according to MSF. During the same period this year, MSF teams saw fewer than 200 migrants. MSF is extremely concerned for the fate of migrants reportedly intercepted at sea and prevented from arriving in Italy.

The Greek government has announced to temporary close down the Pagani detention center. MSF sees this as a welcome first step towards more humane treatment of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers.

It has been more than two months since Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) resumed providing psychosocial support to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers in the Pagani detention center on the island of Lesvos, and the situation continues to be extremely worrying.

For the sixth consecutive year, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing health care to undocumented seasonal migrant workers in southern Italy. Once again, poor living and working conditions pose a serious threat to their mental and physical health.

MSF provided medical immediate assistance to the surviving men and woman who were all suffering from serious health problems as a result of the journey to Italy.

The demolition of the camp has left all the people who were previously living there homeless. Most of them have lost everything, all their belongings, during the clearing of the camp or the fire.

Athens, July 13, 2009 — Following yesterday’s police operation at a makeshift camp for migrants in Patras and the subsequent fire that broke out, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses concern for the medical and humanitarian condition of the migrants and asylum seekers who were left homeless, as well as those who were arrested. MSF urges authorities to ensure humane living conditions and the provision of medical assistance to this population.

"So in August we tried one more time. We had been at sea for four days and four nights when our boat broke down. There were about 50 people on board. We were rescued by a Maltese ship and brought to Malta."

MSF has resumed work in Ta’kandja detention center for migrants and asylum-seekers in Malta after authorities committed to enable the provision of effective medical care and to ensure adequate living conditions for detainees. About 60 percent of patients MSF has treated there are from Somalia.

MSF runs emergency medical programs for asylum seekers and migrants on the border shores of a number of countries, calls for minimum standards in their reception, and denounces their systematic detention.

An MSF team consisting of two doctors, two nurses and one cultural mediator is back in Lampedusa, providing medical care to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers landing on the Italian island.

Brussels, July 11, 2008 — As the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean is due this Sunday at the Paris EU Summit, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on all participants to urgently improve reception conditions for migrants reaching the southern shores of Europe.

Thousands of people risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict, violence, drought and poverty. 

Madrid, June 19, 2008 — Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty. The trip is fraught with danger, as people are exposed to violence from smugglers and receive little assistance upon their arrival in Yemen.

In response to recent outbreaks of violence against migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa, MSF is currently providing emergency medical care for wounded people seeking shelter in police stations, community halls, and other locations to which they have fled for safety.

Johannesburg/Brussels/Kinshasa, December 5th, 2007 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounces the pervasive and systematic use of rape and violence perpetrated by the Angolan army during the expulsions of Congolese migrants working in diamond mines in the Angolan province of Lunda Norte.