EU border policies fuel mental health crisis for asylum seekers

“These people have survived bombing, extreme violence and traumatic events in their home countries or on the road to Europe.” Report - 10 Oct 2017

South Sudan

Continuing displacement is the new reality for many along northern frontier

“An older man came and dropped to the ground on his knees... he did not know what to do anymore. He just wept, in the middle of the group, like he had run out of hope.”
Project Update - 6 Oct 2017

A man looks at the view of Kutupalong Makeshift Settlement, one of the main pre-existing settlements where some of the 507,000 new arrivals have sought shelter. Kutupalong and Balukhali, the largest two settlements, have effectively merged into one densely populated mega-settlement of nearly 500,000 people, making it one of the largest refugee concentrations in the world. The situation in the camps is so incredibly fragile, especially with regard to shelter, food and water, and sanitation, that one small event could lead to an outbreak that may be the tipping point between a crisis and a catastrophe, MSF says. There is an acute need for a massive humanitarian intervention focusing on food, clean water, shelter, and sanitation, and a solution is needed to reduce the size of these massive, congested camps.

Rohingya refugee crisis

“If this is the better option, the other must have been a living hell”

"I’ve heard the most horrific stories from women who have lost their husbands just trying to get here...you start to understand how harrowing this situation is." Voices from the Field - 6 Oct 2017

Savien Robert Zoulemati, 25, father of a week-old baby, from Yakidi village, near by Ippy. “Because me don’t have money, we went hunting. We were a group of five. After the hunt, we came back to the camp, fixed dinner and get some rest. I was lying down when heavily armed Peuhls (Fulanis) attacked us. They came by the river to not be noticed and started shooting at us. My four companions escaped and I got the bullets, one broke my arm, the second went through my hip, the third wounded my right leg. They took us by surprise, hence it was difficult to know how many they were. My companions had abandoned me and I was left with no help. I held my broken arm to my chest. It took me a lot of energy to get head back to the village, I vomited and bled, I was tired, worn out. My hunting companions had alerted the village and by the evening, my parents came to look for me and bring me back home on their bicycle. Peuhls attack us because they see us as FPRC and anti-balaka.”

Central African Republic

Crisis update - September 2017

Violence has led to over 600,000 people being internally displaced within CAR; MSF is providing medical assistance in several areas throughout the country. Crisis Update - 3 Oct 2017

MSF conducts drawing and play sessions with kids at five informal evacuation sites in Iligan City as part of its mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) program.

According to Nur Jannah Barandia, MSF psychosocial worker, it’s important for kids to play and have a sense of normalcy especially in difficult situations.

Philippines

Helping people cope amid conflict in Mindanao

Counselling and water will only get these communities so far, and while Marawi has dropped from international news, the needs of people will last and expand. Voices from the Field - 29 Sep 2017

Syria

Healthcare is being annihilated amid intensified bombings in Syria’s north-west

“It is evident that hospitals are not safe from bombings in Idlib at the moment, and this is outrageous.” Press Release - 28 Sep 2017

Kawkab Al Sarafi works as a nurse in the Emergency Room of the Al Koweit university hospital in Sana’a since 1 year. Since she started her job, she hasn’t been paid a cent. Kokab explains that she lives far away and has to walk to go to the hospital as most of the time she can’t pay for the transportation. When she doesn’t work at the hospital, she goes to the khat market to try to buy large quantities to resell it. « We are really poor, i live with my sister and sometimes we haven’t money to buy food », she added. Kokab is one out of thousands health workers who haven’t been paid since a year, when the government stopped paying the salaries of the civil servants.

Yemen

Government health staff are saving lives without salaries

“People don’t understand that we don’t always have drugs; we need to use our own money to buy the medication. People shout at us ‘Why are you here?!’” Report - 28 Sep 2017

A woman receives surgery to remove a piece of shrapnel from her heel in an injury she sustained weeks earlier. She fled Mosul with her injury.

Iraq

Crisis update – September 2017

The battle for Mosul has taken a staggering toll on the people of Iraq’s second largest city. Health needs are shifting from war injuries to medical cases and long-term rehabilitation care. Crisis Update - 21 Sep 2017

Ukraine

MSF launches new mobile health clinic in eastern Ukraine

“As we were facing a large number of patients in some locations we decided to increase the frequency of some of the mobile clinic sites, to ensure that we can see as many patients as possible.” Press Release - 21 Sep 2017

People in the rain at a border crossing on the Naf river, near Teknaf, September 19.

Rohingya refugee crisis

Immediate action needed to avert massive public health disaster

“Hundreds of thousands of refugees are living in an extremely precarious situation, and all the preconditions for a public health disaster are there.” Press Release - 21 Sep 2017

Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

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