Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released its latest report, "Death and Desperation: The Human Cost of the EU's Migration Policies," on February 21. The report sheds light on the "lethal consequences resulting from the combination of violent practices, implemented by the policies of the European Union, and of its Member States, and the increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric of European leaders toward people in movement," as stated in the NGO's press release.

The report is based on the direct witness accounts of MSF's medical staff, and of the persons they assisted. In 2023 MSF conducted over 20,000 medical consultations to assist migrants, it also rescued over 8,400 persons at sea.

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Violence against migrants and refugees has become normalized

Since 2015, underscores the MSF press release, the NGO has been calling on the EU and its Member States to take on the responsibility and provide a response to the urgent need for assistance and protection of migrants and refugees.

"In practice, the violence against these persons has been normalized instead, with significant investment by the EU institutions in third countries such as Niger and Libya, where people are blocked or forcibly sent back and subjected to inhumane treatment," highlighted the NGO.

In the Central Mediterranean, for example, the Libyan Coast Guard regularly intercepts persons at sea bringing them back to the detention centers in Libya. MSF teams worked in some of these centers from 2016 until 2023, "assisting and documenting deplorable living conditions".

In December 2023, MSF exposed the violence suffered by survivors, including beatings, human trafficking, sexual violence, and torture.

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Between January 2022 and July 2023, MSF's medical teams in the Libyan detention centers diagnosed and treated 58 cases of tuberculosis, and called for the release of an adult patient who was gravely malnourished and weighed, under 40 kilograms, and who could not receive adequate treatment during his detention.

Similar patterns of violence and denial of basic assistance are found in countries like Niger, Serbia, and Tunisia, where MSF operates.

Also read: The 'mental aimlessness' of migrants worsens, says MSF

Practices against EU values, the EU must change its course

"I stayed in the hospital for three days because I was ill. I asked for protection but I was rejected in Belarus. I told the doctor 'I want to stay here, I am asking for asylum', but he replied: 'Honestly, I don't know what will happen to you', and the border guards came to the hospital and put me in prison for three hours. After that I returned to the border," recounted a patient to the MSF team in Belarus.

The MSF staff documented refoulement practices in countries such as Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The EU's deterrence policies, marked by walls, border fences, and surveillance technology, exacerbate physical and psychological wounds, noted MSF.

"In addition to all of this, there are the violent rejections and degrading treatment perpetrated by authorities against those who are seeking security. These practices cause physical wounds as well as post-traumatic stress disorder," accused the NGO.

Many asylum seekers have already endured violence before reaching Europe. In Italy, the project for survivors of intentional violence and torture managed by MSF in Palermo assisted 57 patients between January and August 2023, and 61% of them declared they had been tortured in Libya, while 58% noted they were subjected to torture in a detention center.

Julien Buha Collette, the person in charge of operations for MSF, condemned the EU's adoption of violent policies that strip individuals of their right to mobility. "... we see that the leaders of the EU States increase and even celebrate their inhumane political and policy slogans. All of this is in blatant contradiction with the fundamental values which the EU says it defends." Urgent action is needed to replace this approach with humane solutions, she noted.

"The EU and its Member States must change their course of action urgently, implementing decisive solutions instead of viewing migrant persons and refugees through a security lens and the aim of the dehumanization of persons," urged MSF.

Also read: MSF: Vulnerable migrants rejected at French-Italian border