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

DK subsequently was transferred back to a facility where therewere solely INS detainees.Although DK reported no serious medical problems while in detention,he described a deterioration of his mental health, referringspecifically to extreme anxiety with sudden spells of terror, which heattributed largely to his imprisonment with criminals and to the constantthreats of segregation and deportation.When you see [ officers] sending someone back to his country atnight, you think they might be coming to get you, too… Like lastnight, some of my roommates saw [one detainee] taken away in themiddle of the night and when I woke up he was gone. I felt scared.I say, ‘It can happen to anyone.’DK also reported symptoms of depression, including sadness, difficultysleeping and low energy, and symptoms of trauma, such asrecurrent nightmares. He attributes these problems to his long confinement:Here you are, just in the same place, nothing to do, unable to goanywhere. Sleep just don’t come… In [my] dream the people die,they’re killing people the way my parents died. When I have thedream about these things, I shout in the night. Or I talk. Myroommates tell me I talk too much.DK said he received psychological counseling “maybe two times”at one detention facility before he was transferred. An experience witha counselor at another facility was positive: “[The counselor] wasmaking me feel good. [The counselor] said, ‘You feel sad. You cancome and talk to me.’ It helped because [The counselor] was the onlyone who made me feel good. [The counselor] was willing to listen.”When asked if he was taking medication to help him sleep he said hedid not know such medication was available.DK subsequently won protection under the Convention AgainstTorture, but the INS appealed. After almost two years in Americanjails, DK was paroled pending a retrial of his case.DK spoke out against the policy of detaining asylum seekers.Sometimes INS says we are criminals. We are not criminals. Wedeserve the chance. If we do crime put us in jail. But we do nocrime. I came to this country for freedom.MENTAL HEALTH OF DETAINED ASYLUM SEEKERS 59