A Trauma Clinic in Birmingham Offers Healing to Asylum Seekers Bearing Deep Scars

Azad*, an asylum seeker from Iran, speaks quietly and with care as he sits in a therapy room at a specialist trauma clinic in Birmingham.

The centre, which opened in July of last year to address the “unmet mental healthcare needs of those seeking sanctuary,” is operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders. It delivers specialised, trauma-focused psychological treatment to refugees and asylum seekers across Birmingham and the wider region.

To date, the clinic has received more than 350 referrals from the NHS and refugee organisations, conducting 521 consultations. Many of its patients have survived conflict, persecution, torture, and other forms of violence and exploitation in their home countries or during their journeys to safety.

Data shared by MSF with the Guardian reveals that among 150 case files reviewed by MSF clinicians, 88% documented experiences of violence, and one in three recorded suicidal ideation at the time they first engaged with the organisation.

Azad, who arrived in the UK aboard a small boat, was approached by MSF staff while being accommodated in a hotel in Birmingham. He said he had long known he needed help but had nowhere to turn. “It was the only person who didn’t see me as a number, listened like I’m a human,” he said.

Azad’s journey to the UK began several years earlier, when Iranian authorities cracked down on protests that had swept across the country in late 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. She had been arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf.

Azad, a Kurdish-Iranian civil engineer, participated in the demonstrations and said he witnessed people being shot and others blinded. After authorities identified him spray-painting graffiti, his father urged him to flee the country, fearing for his safety. He later said the authorities ransacked his family home.

Azad travelled to Germany, where he applied for asylum but was rejected — a decision he attributed to a “racist” interviewer and delays that prevented an appeal hearing. The rejection left him feeling hopeless. “There were times that I was feeling I have nothing to live for,” he said, recalling a suicide attempt.

The UK was his final and only option, he said. Upon arrival, he alleged that border officials swore at him. MSF staff said the mental health struggles of their patients had been further compounded by a rise in “hostility and anti-migrant sentiment in the UK.”

Some of their clients had been relocated from hotels routinely targeted by far-right protesters. Others described being physically assaulted.

A clinical psychologist at the clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “What they are routinely sharing with us is a lot of fear around the environment in the UK. Attitudes towards migrants are becoming more and more hostile.”

“And that’s a combination of policy but also the general kind of narrative and rhetoric within the UK.”

The charity said it was essential for MSF to deliver intensive psychological treatment in the countries where refugees and asylum seekers hope to rebuild their lives.

“If you open a wound and you cannot heal it, the wound will get worse,” said Fouzia Bara, head of MSF’s migration taskforce. “Birmingham is the safe place where we can start the healing process. This is why we are providing highly intensive care, because unfortunately the journey of migration is a journey of violence.”

Azad, who has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is nearing the end of his treatment, described the transformative effect the support has had on his life.

“They are lifesavers. I had nothing, there was no life in me. But they showed me: no, you can have a life,” he said.

* Name has been changed

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