Webinar: How UK asylum policies are harming patients
Join us to hear from MSF experts about how and why we're holding the UK Government to account for its harmful approach to asylum.
You'll hear from frontline Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinical staff who work to treat the medical impact of asylum practices, as well as from our advocacy team about their work to pressure the UK Government to change the system.
Importantly, you'll also learn about how you can get involved with our campaign and help us speak out.
When: 22 July, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Where: Online
Cost: Free to attend
Background
Between 2023 and 2024, MSF ran its first project supporting people seeking sanctuary in the UK.
Located at RAF Wethersfield, a converted military base in Essex, our staff treated men who had suffered abuse and violence in their home countries, but now faced prison-like conditions and structural violence at the site.
In the three years since, the rhetoric and policies surrounding migration and asylum have deteriorated rapidly.
People seeking sanctuary face increasingly draconian laws and practices: from violent UK-funded border patrols in northern France, to the suspension of family reunion. This means women and children often have no way to join loved ones already in the country – compounding their existing trauma, anxiety, and depression. Meanwhile, toxic debates have led to the direct targeting of people seeking sanctuary and organisations that support them, including ourselves.
At MSF, we treat people based on medical need alone. It doesn’t matter where a patient is from, their ethnicity, religious identity or what their political affiliations are. Read more about our values, here.
In the UK, we continue to treat patients suffering from trauma and poor mental health resulting from their experiences before, during, and after their journey to seek sanctuary. But it’s not enough to treat the symptoms; we must contend with what has become a major driver of the ill health for our patients.
That is the UK asylum system itself.