UK asylum crisis
MSF is responding to the medical consequences of the UK’s harmful asylum system.
Successive governments have continued to implement punitive anti-migration deterrence policies that have caused medical and psychological harm and eroded the protections for people seeking safety.
Across the globe, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams have treated the physical and mental health consequences of such inhumane migration policies.
Our concerns are grounded in well-documented negative health impacts, as witnessed by our teams in Libya, Greece, Poland, Bangladesh, France, Mexico, Malaysia and on Nauru.
The UK Government is no exception.
Successive governments have shut down nearly all safe routes to the UK, with no plans to open new ones. At the same time, we see policies that seek to trap people and deter them from reaching Europe and the UK, or to remove people to third countries.
Mental health is a particular concern. We know that people seeking refuge from war, persecution, and other forms of hardship often require comprehensive mental health support to address the trauma they have endured in their home country or along their journey.
However, the UK’s current policies, including containment, detention and criminalisation of people seeking safety, exacerbate psychological distress and compromise basic well-being.
MSF in the UK: Latest news and stories
Explained: How is MSF responding in the UK?
MSF’s work in the UK is guided solely by humanitarian and medical needs.
We treat patients “on the ground,” while campaigning for change through our advocacy work.
In recent years, we have responded to the series of harmful policies and legislation changes introduced by successive UK Governments. This includes the Safety of Rwanda Act (2024), the Illegal Migration Act (2023) and the Nationality and Borders Act (2022).
We speak out about the medical harms of detaining people for immigration purposes. In particular, we draw from our experience working on the Greek islands. Here, since 2016, MSF has cared for people at large-scale containment sites that hold thousands of people seeking asylum in the EU.
It is a dangerous approach that the UK Home Office openly copies.
We have also raised concerns about the UK’s role in supporting and funding harmful migration policies and practices in other parts of the world where our teams work.
Spotlight: The mental health crisis at Wethersfield
Between October 2023 and December 2024, MSF medical teams in collaboration with Doctors of the World (DOTW) UK provided essential healthcare to asylum-seeking men held at the RAF Wethersfield mass containment site in Essex.
Our medical teams documented a mental health crisis amongst the men accommodated here. Many had depression, suicidal ideation, and symptoms consistent with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including psychosis.
MSF continued to provide remote GP consultations until April 2025, and documented serious failures by the Government to protect and safeguard individuals.
“Wethersfield is never going to be appropriate accommodation for anyone, let alone somebody who has had very traumatic experiences previously. Everybody should be housed in the community, with some level of privacy and autonomy.”
Everyone who accessed our services at Wethersfield had crossed the Channel by small boat. Interviews revealed the dangerous journeys undertaken because of a lack of access to safe routes. Three-quarters of patients had experienced violence and abuse either in their country of origin or journey to the UK.
Our experience at Wethersfield and in similar environments highlights the need for the UK Government to ensure access to specialist mental health support for migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum.
We continue to call for the closure of the Wethersfield site and for the UK Government to abandon the policy of mass containment for people seeking safety in the UK.
In July 2025, MSF established a similar project in Birmingham and Sandwell, delivering specialised trauma-focused psychological care to people seeking sanctuary in the UK. This includes people seeking asylum and refugees living with difficulties associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD.
Common questions: Refugees and asylum seekers in the UK
In the year ending March 2026, the top five countries of origin for people crossing in small boats were Eritrea, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran and Somalia – countries affected by conflict, instability and other human rights concerns and where MSF has a presence.
Claiming asylum is a legal right under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Refugee status itself is granted by the UK Government. Home Office data shows that between 2018 and 2025, 95 percent of all people arriving on small boats went on to claim asylum. The majority of those (60 percent) have already been granted refugee status or another form of protection, with a further seven percent still waiting for a decision.
A ‘safe’ route is one where the Government has given prior approval for a person to come to the UK for humanitarian purposes. A person may be granted a visa, but they can travel without one. To claim asylum in the UK, an individual must be physically present in the country to apply.
Current safe routes to the UK are extremely limited. Those that do exist include small-scale resettlement programmes and ‘bespoke’ humanitarian pathways for specific groups of people – for example, Ukrainians and Hong Kong British Nationals
Successive UK Governments have shut down nearly all safe routes to the UK. For the most common nationalities claiming asylum in the year ending March 2026 (Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia), there are no schemes or visas currently in place for people to travel to the UK.
Where existing schemes do exist, they are extremely limited in scope and can be very slow. In fact, only 4,894 people were granted protection through resettlement schemes in the year ending March 2026, with 90 percent of those (4,409 people) via the Afghan Resettlement Programme, which closed to applications in 2025.
It is important to remember that resettlement and other complementary pathways are discretionary and cannot replace the UK’s obligations under international law to ensure effective access to fair asylum procedures and international protection.
Without these safe routes to reach the UK, people will continue to undertake dangerous and sometimes fatal Channel crossings.
Tragically, as of May 2026, at least 125 men, women and children have lost their lives attempting the journey since 2023.
Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which the UK is a signatory and founding member, refugees are not obliged to seek safety in the first ‘safe’ country they reach. And, under the convention, people should not be penalised for crossing borders to seek asylum without prior approval.
In the case of small boat crossings, many people are driven by family and language connections and other historical colonial ties to reach the UK specifically. But, without access to safe routes, they are forced to make the dangerous journey by sea.
At the same time, conditions are dire for people seeking sanctuary in northern France.
MSF teams have been responding here since 2016 and treating people seeking safety in Calais, Dunkirk and Paris. Our teams support unaccompanied children, and give psychological assistance to people who survive after a sinking when attempting to cross the Channel.
Most people seeking safety become ‘internally displaced’ within their country, or seek safety in a directly neighbouring country, such as in Turkey and Lebanon for Syrian refugees.
A relatively small number of refugees may take onward journeys from other European countries to the UK, because they have family here or because they speak English.
Compared to other European countries, in 2025, the UK ranked 15 in Europe for asylum applications per head of population, and received the fifth largest number of asylum seekers overall.
Despite much media coverage and political attention, small boats make up a very small proportion of total immigration to the UK.
In the UK, refugees and people seeking asylum with an active application or appeal are entitled to free NHS care, including primary and secondary healthcare. Everyone is entitled to emergency treatment, but for refused asylum seekers and those without official immigration status, access to free care is more complicated.
Refugees and asylum seekers continue to face many barriers accessing healthcare in the UK, including challenges registering with a GP, language barriers, and being incorrectly charged or denied care, amongst others. Access to mental health services can be particularly challenging, and patients may require specialist services to treat trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
MSF, refugees and displaced people
In 2024, over 120 million people were living as ‘forcibly displaced’. That’s more than one in every 67 people on Earth.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that this includes 32 million refugees and more than 72 million internally displaced people, as well as other groups in need of protection.