Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international humanitarian organisation providing life-saving medical care in more than 70 countries.

MSF has a long history of providing medical and humanitarian assistance to people who have been forced to flee conflict, persecution and crisis.

Since our founding, we have put the needs of refugees at the heart of our mission and have developed specific expertise in treating the health consequences of forced displacement, including the harm caused by migration policies themselves.

We’re sick of the dangerous misinformation around small boats and 'asylum hotels'. Most of all, we're sick of the UK’s unworkable policies.

That’s because we know these policies – the ones that force people to make dangerous Channel crossings, that keep people living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, that separate families – are just making people seeking sanctuary even sicker.  

Every day, MSF witnesses the severe mental and physical harm caused by the UK’s asylum system. 

We’ve seen it in the depression and anxiety of our patients in temporary accommodation in Birmingham, living in limbo with increasing levels of hostility and insecurity. 

We’ve seen it in Calais, where our teams respond to the physical and psychological consequences of violence and deprivation imposed on people seeking sanctuary – largely funded by the UK government. 

We’ve seen it in those we meet who fled torture and persecution in their home countries only to be held in mass containment sites with minimal access to mental health care and no hope for the future.

Read more about the UK asylum crisis

While the majority of our work continues to be focused on treating people caught in complex crises and healthcare emergencies around the world, the MSF Charter informs our decision to provide healthcare to people seeking asylum and refugees in the UK.

Our work with people seeking asylum is not limited to this country. For example, since 2016, MSF has treated the devastating medical and humanitarian consequences of the EU's migration policy. A policy that resulted in the holding of thousands of people seeking asylum in large-scale containment sites on the Greek islands in appalling conditions – a dangerous approach the UK's Home Office is openly emulating.

We also provided medical care to people held on the island of Nauru as part of the Australian Government's asylum policy. There, our teams witnessed one of the worst mental health crises in our organisation's history, with high rates of children suffering from self-harm and suicidal ideation.