The southern region of Calabria and the islands of Sicily and Lampedusa are some of the main arrival points for the thousands of people who embark on the dangerous migration route across the Mediterranean Sea every year.

In Roccella Jonica, Calabria, we started providing medical and psychological support at landing sites, seeking to identify people with medical vulnerabilities so that we could ensure continuity of care for them.

Our teams working in Crotone and Agrigento focused on the identification of vulnerable people in reception facilities, organising referrals to local health services. We also offered psychological first aid to survivors of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea at different landing sites across Sicily and Calabria.

In Palermo, we continued providing comprehensive care for migrants who experienced torture and intentional violence in Libya and during their migration route. The project has an interdisciplinary approach, offering medical, psychological, social and legal assistance to patients. In 2022, we housed a small group of migrants and asylum seekers, who had been evacuated from Libya on a humanitarian flight, in an MSF facility. In addition to housing them, we ensured the patients’ continuity of care through our clinic.

In Rome, in collaboration with the local health authorities, we ran a project focused on facilitating access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for migrant women living in marginalised neighbourhoods and informal settlements.

After the escalation of the war in Ukraine, we launched emergency interventions in Rome, Naples, Milan and Trieste, offering psychological support, as well as social and health assistance, for the large influx of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Italy.

MSF volunteers in Palermo, Turin and Udine set up helpdesks to orientate and support people needing access to healthcare, including migrants, asylum seekers and marginalised people.