Faced with ever-increasing healthcare needs, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has begun providing women with much needed gynaecological care and psychological support, in contrast to the security-focused approach favoured by the French authorities.
In the Dunkirk area, displaced people are surviving in camps far from town centres and situated in the middle of an unsuitable industrial site classified as high-risk. Associations working along the northern coastline have noticed an increase in the number of women since 2025. Many of them have suffered repeated violence during their journey into exile and are once again exposed to it in France. “There is a high level of overcrowding in the camps, and all the women are exposed to harassment. They live in tents whose only lock is a zip,” explains Nihal Osman, Programme Coordinator for MSF’s France mission.
“These women are physically and mentally exhausted,” continues Nihal Osman.“ They spend their days searching for food and clothing, or trying to find a tent, because every week the police evict them from the camps from the camps forcing them to abandon any belongings they have.” MSF is attempting to address this situation of displacement by providing them with emergency accommodation.
Isolated in remote areas of the camps, their access to healthcare services is limited, particularly in the area of sexual and reproductive health. Every week, MSF teams visit the camps with a mobile clinic, providing gynaecological care, mental health support. “Our project enables us to reach women who, barring life-threatening emergencies, face significant difficulties in accessing care. The authorities refuse to adapt healthcare provision to the specific needs of people in transit. Drinking water points, showers and toilets, and a regular waste collection system were only put in place after six organisations filed an urgent application for interim relief with the Lille Administrative Court in November 2025,” emphasises Camille Niel, head of MSF’s France mission.
In Calais, where MSF has been present since 2023, and now in the Dunkirk area, the evidence is irrefutable: the repressive policies implemented by the French authorities, with significant financial support from the British government, are causing ever greater exclusion and precariousness along the northern coast. “Far from deterring migrants from travelling to the French coast in an attempt to reach the UK, these policies are creating humanitarian situations that are extremely worrying, yet largely avoidable,” concludes Camille Niel.
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