Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees

Abstract

BackgroundOver the past decade, developed Western countries have supplied increasingly stringent measures to discourage those seeking asylum.AimsTo investigate the longer-term mental health effects of mandatory detention and subsequent temporary protection on refugees.MethodLists of names provided by community leaders were supplemented by snowball sampling to recruit 241 Arabic-speaking Mandaean refugees in Sydney (60% of the total adult Mandaean population). Interviews assessed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive episodes, and indices of stress related to pasttrauma, detention and temporary protection.ResultsA multilevel model which included age, gender, family clustering, pre-migration trauma and length of residency revealed that past immigration detention and ongoing temporary protection each contributed independently to risk of ongoing PTSD, depression and mental health-related disability. Longer detention was associated with more severe mental disturbance, an effect that persisted for an average of 3 years after release.ConclusionsPolicies of detention and temporary protection appear to be detrimental to the longer-term mental health of refugees.

L’expérience des demandeurs d’asile détenus au Canada

“…De nombreuses études scientifi ques et cliniques ont constaté que la détention des demandeurs d'asile était associée à un niveau élevé de symptômes psychiatriques (Keller et al, 2003 ;Ichikawa et al, 2006 ;Momartin et al, 2006 ;Steel et al, 2006 ;Silove et al, 2007 ;Robjant et al, 2009a ;Robjant et al, 2009 b). Au Royaume-Uni, après une déten-tion médiane de 30 jours, 76 % des demandeurs d'asile détenus étaient cliniquement déprimés, contre seulement 26 % des demandeurs d'asile non détenus, faisant partie du groupe témoin (Robjant et al, 2009b).…”

“…Ces deux instruments, bien validés, ont été utilisés dans de nombreuses études auprès de réfugiés et de demandeurs d'asile (Kleijin et al, 2001 ;Hollifi eld et al, 2002), incluant quatre autres études quantitatives sur la santé mentale des demandeurs d'asile détenus (Keller et al, 2003 ;Ichikawa et al, 2006 ;Momartin et al, 2006 ;Steel et al, 2006). Pour les besoins de notre étude, les instruments ont été traduits en français, espagnol, arabe, farsi, tamoul et ourdou, selon la procédure reconnue (Kleijin et al, 2001).…”

Mental health and the asylum process

“…31 A study comparing rates of anxiety, depression and PTSD among refugees and asylum-seekers from Iran and Iraq in Sydney found that those without refugee status were five times as likely to have PTSD as those with refugee status, though some of this discrepancy was explained by a difference in the groups' reported experience of traumatic events. 32 A recent Irish study found that 63% of asylum-seekers had PTSD symptoms, compared to 21% of refugees. 15 In this study, three-quarters of asylum-seekers endorsed symptoms of depression and anxiety, compared to one-third of refugees.…”

Policy Statement on the Incarceration of Undocumented Migrant Families

“…Interviews with 14 adults and 20 children at a remote immigration detention center in Australia revealed that each person met criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder at the time of the interview (Steel et al, 2004). Furthermore, prolonged detention has been shown to have a long-term effect on the psychological health of refugees which persists after the detention (Steel et al, 2004(Steel et al, , 2006. Again at an Australian detention center, among the 16 adults and 20 children interviewed, all of the children had at least one parent with a psychiatric disorder (Mares & Jureidini, 2004).…”