Italy: Abandoned at the borders: stories of people on the move during winter
February 1, 2021Recent months have seen a sharp increase in the number of migrants and refugees at Italy's northern borders. Even in winter, people head westwards across the snow-capped mountains towards France; many tell stories of being repeatedly turned back by the French police. On...
Read moreBangladesh: Relocations, reduced services leave Rohingya communities at breaking point in Bangladesh
January 22, 2021Faruk* is a Rohingya refugee – one of nearly a million – living in a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “No one wants to be a refugee; the life we have here is not easy. We live in an open prison,” Faruk...
Read moreFear of violence and poor living conditions: Life inside South Sudan’s largest displacement camp
December 7, 2020In a shelter made of elephant grass and plastic sheets in the Protection of Civilians site (PoC) in Bentiu, northern South Sudan, a widow cooks for her children. Nyamal*, 43 years old, is preparing the traditional dish wualwual, a kind of porridge....
Read moreMediterranean migration: Carnage in the Mediterranean is the direct result of European state policies
November 13, 2020AMSTERDAM/ PARIS - The last few days have produced one of the most lethal episodes in the central Mediterranean Sea so far this year, with more than 100 people dying at sea in four separate shipwrecks within less than 72 hours. Six NGO rescue...
Read moreGreece: Negligent and dangerous COVID-19 response in Vathy camp, Samos
October 26, 2020Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is urging the Greek authorities to immediately scale up their response to COVID-19 in Vathy camp on Samos island and transfer people at high risk to safe accommodation on Greece’s mainland or in other...
Read moreMediterranean migration: “Enough is enough”: Time to stop the cycle of suffering for refugees on Greek islands
September 18, 2020Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on the Greek and the EU authorities to stop their efforts to rebuild a new system of containment for refugees and asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos, Greece, and to break once and...
Read moreGreece: MSF forced to close COVID-19 centre on Lesbos
July 30, 2020ATHENS – A COVID-19 isolation centre set up on the island of Lesbos, Greece, by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to close, after local authorities imposed fines with potential criminal charges, related to urban planning regulations. MSF strongly condemns the...
Read moreFive things we can do to protect people on the move during COVID-19
May 18, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting the world’s most vulnerable. Among them are more than 70 million forcibly displaced people worldwide – refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs) – as well as migrant workers, including undocumented migrants. Many of these men,...
Read moreCOVID-19: Vulnerable communities are bracing for impact of COVID-19
March 21, 2020Op-ed by Jonathan Whittall, Head of humanitarian analysis How are you supposed to wash your hands regularly if you have no running water or soap? How can you implement ‘social distancing’ if you live in a slum or a refugee...
Read moreSyria: People in northwest Syria continue to struggle despite truce
March 19, 2020The military offensive carried out by the Government of Syria and its allies in northwest Syria has led to almost a million people in the Idlib region becoming displaced in the space of just four months. People have had to flee from their homes...
Read moreMediterranean migration: Ocean Viking arbitrarily quarantined by Italian authorities over COVID-19 fears
February 28, 2020As Italy was hit by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak late last week, the Ocean Viking, the search and rescue ship operated by Doctors Withour Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS MEDITERRANEE, was put under quarantine following the disembarkation of 276 people rescued at sea...
Read moreSyria: Afraid of the bombs: why people discuss the weather in northwestern Syria
January 9, 2020Intense military offensives by the Government of Syria and its allies in southern Idlib governorate, Syria, involving shelling, aerial bombing and ground offensives, have resulted in a massive new movement of people to escape the war zone. The northern part of Idlib,...
Read more