Italy

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continued to address gaps in medical services for the most vulnerable people and challenge these restrictive policies in 2019. From July to November, we ran a mobile clinic in the Basilicata region in southern Italy to provide healthcare to migrants working as daily laborers in agriculture.

Most of them live in crowded, unsanitary conditions in remote rural settlements, in makeshift camps or rural squats. In five months, MSF carried out more than 900 medical consultations and over 400 consultations for legal support via partners. At the end of the year, we identified a group of local doctors to take over these activities.

In November, we closed the rehabilitation centre for victims of torture that we opened in Rome in 2016. The project, run in collaboration with local partners Medici Contro la Tortura and ASGI, implemented a multidisciplinary approach. This comprised of medical and psychological consultations, physiotherapy, and social support for over 200 patients. Most of our patients were discharged in 2019, with the most critical (around 10) being referred to our partners or other organizations.

Our teams continue to offer psychological first aid at disembarkation for people who have suffered traumatic events while crossing the Mediterranean. In 2019, MSF teams of psychologists and intercultural mediators assisted more than 38 people in two interventions in Lampedusa and Catania.

Throughout the year, in Palermo, Rome, and Turin, we helped around 1,060 people to access national health services, in partnership with local health authorities.

No. staff in 2019: 32 | Expenditure in 2019: €2.4 million | Year MSF first worked in the country: 1999