Belarus 2024 © Alexandra Sadokova/MSF

Belarus

Supporting the national tuberculosis program in the capital and other locations.

News update

How European policies choose violence against migrants and refugees

An MSF report found that at every step of the migration journey, migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are systematically and violently targeted by EU policies that trap them in unsafe situations, block them from reaching safety, arbitrarily keep them detained, and ultimately deny them safety. The report compiled firsthand testimony from medical staff and patients as well as data from over 20,000 medical, mental health, and emergency consultations provided to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers across 12 programs in Europe and northern Africa between August 2021 and September 2023.

Our work in Belarus

In Belarus, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports the rollout of a new, safer tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimen and provides medical and humanitarian assistance to migrants attempting to reach the European Union (EU).

Militarised Polish-Belarus border Kozie Borki natural park

What’s happening in Belarus?

Thousands of people continue to travel to Belarus in hopes to cross into the EU. Along the way, many face violent pushbacks and mistreatment at the hands of EU border guards.

How we're helping in Belarus

In 2023, our team in the capital, Minsk, continued to provide technical support and assistance to the national TB program. Following the publication of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) updated guidelines in December 2022, which recommended the programmatic use of a new, six-month, all-oral treatment regimen for multi-drug resistant TB, MSF supported its implementation across the country.

We also continued to support the treatment of hepatitis C in the penitentiary system, using new, more effective drugs, and training medical staff in chronic hepatitis C diagnosis and management.

Since October 2021, our medical teams have been supporting people on the move in various locations across the country, including the Belarus–EU border areas, providing humanitarian assistance and facilitating access to medical and mental health care.

After two years of these activities, MSF found that the medical needs of people on the move were outweighed by their needs for protection and legal support, which requires the specialist expertise of dedicated organizations. With this in mind, we made the difficult decision to conclude these activities in Belarus.

How we're helping

220

People started treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)

*Data from MSF International Activity Report 2023

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Learn about MSF’s journalistic roots and our commitment to bear witness and speak out about the plight of the people we treat.

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Learn about MSF’s journalistic roots and our commitment to bear witness and speak out about the plight of the people we treat.

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How you can help

Not everyone can treat patients in the field. But everyone can do something.

Some humanitarian crises make the headlines—others don’t. Unrestricted support from our donors allows us to mobilize quickly and efficiently to provide lifesaving medical care to the people who need it most, whether those needs are in the spotlight or not. And your donation is 100 percent tax-deductible.