In 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued, in collaboration with other NGOs, to work in the humanitarian hub in Brussels, where we conducted psychological consultations. Patients needing more specialised care were invited to make an appointment with psychologists in our mental health clinic.

Our outreach teams in Brussels assisted people experiencing homelessness and migrants living in squats and shelters by providing medical and mental health consultations, health promotion, and infection prevention and control activities. During the year, we expanded these activities to support people living in camps, squats or other precarious conditions in Wallonia.

We also established a network of medical volunteers to offer medical care in detention centres across the country, enabling detainees to obtain a second medical opinion.

In early 2023, we handed over to the Red Cross the temporary medical clinic we had been running in front of the Immigration Office in Brussels, thereby ensuring availability of care for migrants and asylum seekers in the city. We also organised a second vaccination catch-up campaign, to curb the rising number of vaccine-preventable diseases among people living in squats and on the streets.

As well as providing these direct services for patients, MSF scaled up advocacy efforts, calling for adequate access to care for all people, for the Belgian authorities to adhere to national and international laws concerning the protection and care of applicants for international protection, and for people in detention centres to receive proper access to second medical opinions.