Médecins Sans Frontières – One year after the EU-Turkey Deal, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a report to expose the human costs of European policy failures in Greece and the Balkans. MSF calls on the EU and member state leaders to radically change their approach to migration and ensure a swift end to the unnecessary suffering of the thousands caught in the consequences of the EU-Turkey deal.

“The deal is having a direct impact on the health of our patients, and many are becoming more vulnerable,” says Jayne Grimes, MSF psychologist in Samos. “These people have fled extreme violence, torture and war and survived extremely dangerous journeys. Today, their anxiety and depression is aggravated by the lack of information on their legal status and their poor living conditions. They are losing any hope that they will find a safer, better future than the one they fled. I often see people who contemplate suicide or self-mutilate.”

“European leaders continue to believe that by building fences and punishing those who still try to cross them, they will deter others from fleeing for their lives,” says Aurelie Ponthieu, MSF humanitarian adviser on displacement.

MSF decided to suspend funds from the EU and Member States in opposition to the EU-Turkey deal. We reiterate that full respect of the right to seek asylum, the opening of safe and legal alternatives for the movement of people, such as resettlement, relocation, humanitarian visas and family reunification, as well as work and study visas are the only humane solution to end death and suffering at Europe’s borders, on land and at sea.

Read the full press release here