BACKGROUND
Charleroi Project (end 2018)
MSF is conducting a pilot project in Belgium targeting asylum seekers and newly arrived refugees (men, women and children) living in accommodation facilities or individual housing. The project aims to decrease morbidity and severity of mental health for the asylum seekers in Belgium.
MSF is implementing a Model of Care for mental health activities. The aim is to show that by intervening at an early stage, with not only specialized mental health staff, the mental health for asylum seekers and refugees can improve and reduce the burden of the primary and secondary health care. The activities currently consist of screening for mental health problems, and offering low threshold activities such as Psychological First Aid (PFA), Psychoeducation, Health Promotion, Group interventions and Individual counseling sessions (e.g. mental health assessment interview before referral). There is also a community work component that tries to establish a participative approach for beneficiaries resulting educational, occupational and recreational activities. People who are in need of specialized care will be referred to existing system. Training and capacity building (e.g. on screening for mental health problems/detection and cultural briefing) will be given to staff at asylum centers.
The project ends at the end of 2018, but a further advocacy follow-up will need to be guaranteed. Possibly some support activities to implement the model in reception centers could be considered if Fedasil shows dedication.
Context HUB project
Since September 2017 a stable number of +/- 700 irregular migrants group in and around the Maximilian Park in Brussels. Most are waiting to cross to the UK. Although we are dealing with a circular population, the demographics of the people in Brussels stay more or less the same. Most of the people come from Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Since September 2018 we see a rise of new persons arriving in Brussels. Many of them have been brought to Brussels by police after being arrested at different locations throughout the country (mainly at parkings and along highways). After their passage at immigration office where police takes them, most of them end up in the Maximilian Park across the street from immigration services.
They're all left without any assistance of the Belgian authorities. These people are in need of shelter, food, medical and psychosocial care and access to objective information about asylum procedures and their rights.
In the past year we have seen a rise in the number of incidents with migrants transiting through Belgium. A little girl has been shot by a policeman during a pursuit of a van packed with migrants in March. Several migrants have died on the highway while trying to climb in a truck to travel to the UK in the last couple of months, and few weeks ago a migrant was shot by a police officer in the Maximilian Park.
Several Belgian NGO's and civil society actors have put their efforts together and are providing a series of humanitarian services in a common project, the humanitarian HUB, with the objective of responding in a comprehensive manner to the needs of these people. The HUB offers medical care, mental health care, family tracing services, clothes distribution, social and legal assistance, and phone charging and phone call possibilities. Médecins Sans Frontières is providing mental health care in this set-up and participates actively in the management of the project.
Political Environment
The Belgian government wants to avoid at all cost a Belgian version of the Calais makeshift camps in France. They have therefore put in place restrictive policies of deterrence with a
• criminalizing discourse of the “transmigrants” to the Belgian public
• regular police harassment towards the people sleeping in the park
• regular -and increasing- detention of migrants in the park or along the highway parking lots
• ad-hoc collaborations with doubtful regimes like the Sudanese to send people back
Officially, the Belgian government wants to tackle the smuggling networks
As it is a sensitive issue like in the rest of Europe, right wing politicians (government included) try to gain votes by creating an atmosphere of crisis around this issue.
HUB Project Presentation
It is important to note that there are common objectives discussed and decided upon between the different partners of the project. On top of that every organization has other objectives more specific to the field of work that they perform within the common project.
HUB common objectives:
Beginning of 2018 all partners in the HUB agreed upon following set of objectives:
• Respond in an integrated way to the needs of migrants and refugees in transit
• Develop a model of intervention that could be duplicated in other cities or areas that face a similar transiting migrant population
• Facilitate the mobilization of civil solidarity towards the most vulnerable migrant population
Who are the partners?
• Legal advice: Plateforme Citoyenne with support from Ciré and Vluchtelingewerk
• Medical consultations: Médecins Du Monde
• Mental health: MSF
• Non Food: Plateforme Citoyenne
• Family link tracing and overseas phone calls: Red Cross
• Social services: Plateforme Citoyenne
Above mentioned services could be subject to change
The MSF team consists of 1 Field Coordinator, 1 Mental Health Activity Manager, 2 Psychologists (part-time), 2 volunteer Psychiatrists, 2 Cultural mediators/Interprets. In 2019, team composition may grow depending on the direction of the project.
JOB PROFILE
Main purpose
Being responsible for MSF’s operational response in the Mission. In collaboration with the operational cell, defining the mission operational strategy. Coordinating MSF’s program execution, identifying humanitarian challenges, representing MSF’s interests before third parties. Ensuring compliance to MSF’s charter, ethical standards and policies as well as international and national laws and regulations, in order to realize organizational objectives and reach quality targets for the Mission.
Develop the necessary analysis and networks (political, humanitarian, medical, and civil society) to pass MSF overall messages on migration and influence Belgian authorities, policy-makers and the wider public. Gain influence on Belgium as an EU member state and as a host country to refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. Further develop and implement the advocacy strategy.
Accountabilities
• Objective 1: Initiate and lead the operational strategy; including country policy, annual plan, budget and policy frameworks.
• Objective 2: Monitor and analyse the political, humanitarian and medical situation in the country and in the region. Provide the project(s) with timely analysis about migration, mental health and the asylum reception system in which we operate. Maintain a level of emergency response capacity.
• Objective 3: Develop and maintain a network of relevant contacts for MSF operations.
• Objective 4: Develop advocacy strategies in collaboration with the projects, including stakeholders and power mappings, data collection systems.
• Objective 5: Ensure regular information sharing and collaboration with our partners, other MSF missions and all other relevant actors in the field of migration (including volunteer groups).
• Objective 6: Represent MSF and defend MSF's positions on migration towards the Belgian authorities on the basis of operational realities, through selective attendance to relevant meetings, strategic interactions with officials, briefings of relevant contacts, high-level correspondence, etc;
Tasks
• Lead the team translating the strategic objectives into operational activities. Monitor developments in MSF’s general policies and strategies and adapt the annual plan of the mission accordingly
• Integrate an internal and external communication policy for the mission to advocate for change
• Evaluate the progress and outcomes of activities to ensure that objectives are achieved
• Implement Human Resources policy and ensure that MSF acts as a responsible employer in terms of working conditions and reduction of security and health risks
• Ensure the associative character of MSF is reflected in the briefing of all MSF staff
• Keep staff and HQ informed and updated of context and security related issues
• Produce all required planning and program performance reports in line with the HQ reporting cycle
• Support in expanding networks and contacts for analysis, advocacy and operational purposes
• Analyse and increase the knowledge of MSF on current policy issues in Belgium around asylum and migration
• Disseminate MSF advocacy messages and adequately convey MSF concerns to the relevant interlocutors
• Contribute and provide input into communication material
• Act as a spokesperson for MSF in Belgium
• Participate, present and represent MSF at conferences and meetings
