From Persecution to Prison - Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of ...

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I was sick in my mind, had nightmares, stomach pain, couldn’tsleep. Always I was thinking someone’s going to kill me. I don’tknow why they kept me to a small room with no people there. Ifelt like I was dying. I cannot breathe there.In another incident, he was fasting for religious reasons when ahunger strike occurred. Although he was not involved in the strike, hewas rounded up with the strikers and placed in segregation. After 36hours, an officer discovered the mistake and cleared him. A third time,his cellmate stole his medication. He was accused of sharing medicationand segregated for five days.While in detention, HN’s English improved, yet he preferred to usea translator when communicating with INS personnel. He was troubledby the absence of translation during exchanges with health staff.I felt it would be better to have [an interpreter] – I requestedone, but was told by health staff that they could understand.HN described symptoms of anxiety and depression, including nervousness,trembling, and low energy. After repeated requests over severalmonths, he saw a psychiatrist. No translation was provided. “Icouldn’t explain to him how I felt, because of the language problem.”He received medication, but it didn’t relieve his symptoms and lefthim weak and sleepy, so he stopped taking it.Finally, HN won asylum. Since fleeing his country, HN wasinformed by his wife of other attacks on his home and members of hisfamily. He has applied to have his family join him in America.HN reported a marked reduction in symptoms since his release.However, the incarceration left scars. He reports extreme avoidanceof thoughts he associates with his experiences in detention, as well asoccasional attacks of panic in situations that remind him of his detention.When I remember [detention], I feel like my body’s shaking… Ifelt very bad when I was there, I think because I was there a verylong time… I missed my family and what’s happening withthem, that made me old there. .. I cry easily when I think ofwhere I was in detention, what I went through there….TREATMENT IN DETENTION FACILITIES 111
Here, I’m scared. In [the detention center], you’re among people of yourown kind, people who have gone through troubles in their own countriesand fled from persecution. They could understand your plight.Here, if you try to tell someone why you’re here, they say you’re lying:‘They can’t do something like that to you. Why would they put you in ajail cell and treat you like a criminal?’ So sometimes you have to keepyour mouth shut. I don’t think the guards here know I’m an asylumseeker. They just think I’m a criminal. Or they don’t care.Another detainee offered a dark description of incarceration at one countyjail, where asylum seekers are integrated with the general inmate population:“Small cells, with drug users… The other prisoners threatened me.”One asylum seeker held in a county jail was a 19-year-old man whocame to the US to seek asylum after witnessing the murder of both of hisparents by rebel forces, and being forced into slavery at age 15. Hereported sharing a cell with a convicted murderer/drug dealer:[My cellmate] sharpens his knife at night and they talk about killingpeople at night. My block mates say they can get knives, and theysharpen them on the floor, and then they come like that [he lifted hisarm and put his hand to the back of his neck] and kill you. They hidethem out here [he gestured to the visiting room]. Some can bring inmetal because they work with the mechanics. They have to go throughthe metal detector, but just pass the metal on the outside… At [thedetention center] we have long toothbrush, no problem. But here, no,they will sharpen them and make knife.This young man described a sense of constant alarm.I am very afraid. When I first come here, I don’t leave the cell for aweek…My celly says, ‘You’re too nice. You’re here with a bunch ofcriminals, they’ll work you over. You don’t be so nice…’ But I can’t helpit, that is my heart.Subsequently, after repeated requests he was transferred to a facilitywhere he was kept with other detained asylum seekers. After almost 2years in American detention facilities, he was “paroled,” pending finaldecision of his asylum case.Treatment of Detainees by Detention Center StaffAs noted above, most individuals described that, in general, they felt theywere treated either well or neutrally by detention center staff. For example,one detainee commented, “Some officers, if they see you cry, will talkto you, console you.”Another asylum seeker had no complaints against detention centerstaff, although he regarded his confinement as debilitating.112 FROM PERSECUTION TO PRISON
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From Persecution to Prison:The Heal
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CONTENTSAcknowledgements . . . . .
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The Bellevue/NYU Program for Surviv
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don, Miranda Ip, and Meriam Alrashi
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Significant symptoms of depression
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Detained asylum seekers participati
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persecution, yet most emphasized ho
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In many facilities, the response to
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years in detention, she finally got
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abuse For example, while being take
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They didn’t let me use the phone
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intensely personal events they had
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Limitations of this study include t
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Non-governmental organizations serv
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22 FROM PERSECUTION TO PRISON
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the late 1990s ranging from 10 to 7
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Historical BackgroundFor most of th
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international standards with the 19
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apply for asylum make up the majori
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tion judge. 57 Yet in many parts of
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York and Newark, New Jersey has had
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trict began denying parole to them
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Correctional Facility in 2000. “[
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men of which 750 were detained on i
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from that same country from seeking
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Detention Facilities in this StudyF
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high reliability in numerous langua
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York County Prison in York Pennsylv
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TABLE 2:Demographic Characteristics
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TABLE 4:Prevalence of Pre-Migration
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on a part time basis, researchers w
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Case #1(DK): “Loneliness and Fear
Page 69 and 70: TABLE 6:Hopkins Symptom Checklist-2
Page 71 and 72: TABLE 8:Harvard Trauma Questionnair
Page 73 and 74: think such services were available.
Page 75 and 76: When I am talking to you now it is
Page 77 and 78: After being granted asylum and rele
Page 79 and 80: “Being here is like going through
Page 81 and 82: In my country even though I became
Page 83 and 84: how long they were there - six mont
Page 85 and 86: Thoughts of SuicideSeveral asylum s
Page 87 and 88: here?’ I told the doctor, they br
Page 89 and 90: Another subject reported a positive
Page 91 and 92: substantial distance from their att
Page 93 and 94: eported that her experience in dete
Page 95 and 96: 86 FROM PERSECUTION TO PRISON
Page 97 and 98: e somatic manifestations of the psy
Page 99 and 100: Case #2 (JG): “Health Care in Cha
Page 101 and 102: TABLE 11:Detainee Perceptions of He
Page 103 and 104: TABLE 13:Availability and Quality o
Page 105 and 106: detainees, or because they did not
Page 107 and 108: Difficulty Obtaining Specialized Ca
Page 109 and 110: Another detained asylum seeker repo
Page 111 and 112: One detainee who speaks French and
Page 115 and 116: Detention Facilities in this StudyS
Page 117 and 118: even though many reported having ex
Page 119: CASE #3 (HN): “SOLITARY CONFINEME
Page 123 and 124: emote control and watch what he wan
Page 125 and 126: Whenever someone misbehaves, they t
Page 127 and 128: This subject was himself threatened
Page 129 and 130: One detainee reported several incid
Page 131 and 132: Some Process Exists to Respond to R
Page 133 and 134: There were no witnesses other than
Page 135 and 136: tion. An INS officer said they put
Page 137 and 138: There is an Anglican minister who c
Page 139 and 140: The dentists didn’t explain anyth
Page 141 and 142: tion between dental age and chronol
Page 143 and 144: Case #4 (LK): “Fifteen-Year-Old G
Page 147 and 148: TABLE 16:Treatment/Abuses Reported
Page 149 and 150: “There is no political asylum her
Page 151 and 152: I was crying. I was so afraid with
Page 153 and 154: save her life, but was not able to
Page 155 and 156: Case #5 (CR): “Begging for Mercy
Page 157 and 158: ehind and told me to sign. He physi
Page 159 and 160: days and it is now 2 years and four
Page 161 and 162: viewers asked for additional inform
Page 163 and 164: y study participants. In evaluating
Page 165 and 166: trast, under US law, detention of s
Page 167 and 168: nation for an asylum determination
Page 169 and 170: very negative effects of detention
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authority to grant asylum and with
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absconding.” 250 Since the passag
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said “[F]reedom from imprisonment
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Standards relevant to this study ar
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“detained person” generally as
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which they are charged and a fair h
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esponse to substantial public press
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specified procedures, provided they
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PunishmentThe Detention Standard on
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any time the detainee complains.”
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while in detention, thus adding to
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Establish a Uniform National Parole
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that effect. These officers should
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Besides their inaccuracy, these exa
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friends so asylum seekers can maint
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appropriate staffing of such groups
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efugees and asylum seekers who win
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of thorough documentation. However,
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Human development is complex and di
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18. Country from which fleeing pers
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9. Being close to death.10. Forced
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Complete for each health problem:5.
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Explain:(Interviewer: Write brief n
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2. Depression SymptomsA How much we
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B. You said that you have experienc
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Explain:13. How was your physical h
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Yes ...........1No............22. W
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Explain:20. At the time of your arr
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