Wars and becoming a refugee have many consequences on the physical and mental health of civilians and soldiers. ‘Death, injury, sexual violence, malnutrition, illness, and disability are some of the common physical consequences of war, while post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety are the emotional effects.
Many asylum seekers and refugees are survivors or escapee from these traumatic experiences. People escaping from such environment are convinced that when they reach their destinations, they will have a chance to live or to re-build new life and be able to heal these terrible wounds.
However, nothing torments asylum seekers more than being informed that after their miraculous escape from near death situations, they’re unwanted by the country in which they have sought freedom. These torments are intensified by the anxiety of not knowing the outcome of their asylum application. This goes from anxiety to depression once they are disappointed with a declined application following countless years of waiting for the Home Office’s decision.
From this stage onwards, a nightmare begins for asylum seekers, due to the inhumane treatment received during the time prior to their deportation. At this stage, asylum seekers are living in extreme fear of what would happen to them once they are deported. At the same time, they are forced to live on the street by not having a place to stay. Also, this is a period when asylum seekers are made to frequent detention centres without committing any crime. To me, asylum-seeking is the worst thing one would wish his enemy and an asylum seeker’s deportation is equal to being sentenced to the death penalty.
One cannot describe how seeking asylum in the UK demolishes life. The BMC International Health and Human Rights Report identified 29 studies on long-term mental health with a total of 16,010 war-affected refugees. It revealed significant prevalence rates of depression and anxiety even in long-settled war refugees. Countries studied included Yugoslavia, the Middle East & Africa (Liberia, Somalia, and Sudan.) Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam).
‘Whilst preventing war trauma inflicted on refugees may be beyond the control of recipient countries, they can influence the post-migration challenges faced by incoming refugees by improving resettlement policies’, said Marija Bogic & Stefan Priebe, of Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry.
I’m sure that deep down the UK is aware that by refusing to take in refugees, or by reducing asylum seekers to dangers associated with deportation and other inhumane treatment ,she knows it breaches the 1951 Geneva Convention of which she is a party, and that she will change and comply.
It would be doing a disservice to the Glasgow people who united to save refugees and succeeded against immigration enforcement officials who targeted them if this article ended without applauding their bravery.
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1 https://bmcinthealthhumrights.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12914-015-0064-9