Background: In the summer of 2015, the exodus of Syrian war refugees and saturation of refugee camps in neighbouring countries led to the influx of asylumseekers in European countries, including Belgium. This study aims to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of asylum seekers who arrived in a huddled refugee camp, in the centre of a welldeveloped country with all medical facilities. Methods: Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, physicians of Médecins du Monde prospectively registered age, gender, origin, medical symptoms and diagnoses of all patients presenting to an erected field hospital in Brussels in September 2015. Diagnoses were post hoc categorised according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results: Of 4037 patients examined in the field hospital, 3907 were included and analysed for this study. Over 11% of patients suffered from injuries, but these were outnumbered by the proportion of patients with respiratory (36%), dental (9%), skin (9%) and digestive (8%) diagnoses. More than 49% had features of infections at the time of the consultation. Conclusions: Asylum seekers arriving in a refugee camp in Brussels after a long and hazardous journey suffer mostly from respiratory, dental, skin and digestive diseases. Still, one in seven suffers from injury. These findings, consistent with other reports, should be anticipated when composing emergency medical teams and interagency emergency health or similar kits to be used in a field hospital, even in a Western European country. Trial registration number: ISRCTN13523620, Results.

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tooth disease refugee clinical trial demography Europe Wounds and Injuries sex ratio skin disease human Refugees Life Change Events Middle East middle aged gastrointestinal disease statistics and numerical data International Classification of Diseases clinical feature life event health status Aged Logistic Models respiratory tract disease Brussels Capital Region Cross-Sectional Studies asylum seeker Young Adult school child cross-sectional study post hoc analysis classification Adolescent consultation Infant, Newborn male Humans preschool child Aged, 80 and over Infant very elderly Child, Preschool newborn female injury refugee camp Belgium Refugee Camps Article Retrospective Studies major clinical study adult developed country Sex Distribution age distribution infection statistical model retrospective study health care facility Child