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

Thoughts of SuicideSeveral asylum seekers reported that the trauma of detention pushed themtoward their limits. Approximately 25% reported that they had experiencedsuicidal thoughts while in detention. Among those with suicidalthoughts, only 3 individuals (17%) told detention center staff about thesethoughts. Many of the individuals with suicidal thoughts believed that thestress of being in detention was responsible. Two individuals interviewedfor this study reported attempting suicide.One of the individuals who attempted suicide reported that she tried tohang herself, but had been stopped by a friend. Later she was granted asylum.Her description of the events surrounding her suicide attempt is asfollows:Before detention, I had never thought of killing myself. I had never hadsuch an idea. My goal was to save my life. It was when I got into detention,that I started losing hope and thought that it is useless to live. Inmy mind, I just kept thinking there is no reason to live and I thoughtabout what would happen to me if I was sent back to my country- Ithought I would be killed if I was sent back. So I thought it would bebetter to just get it over with now rather than to be sent back.It was after 7 months. I had never been in prison before in my life. Icame to the US to save my life. When I left my country I was alreadysuffering emotionally. I thought the US was a country of human rightsthat would protect me. I never thought about being detained here.I grabbed a bed sheet and tied it to a piece of metal between the televisionand the wall, there was a base of about 3 and a half meters usingthe toilet I was able to tie the sheet and it was easy to do. This way ofcommitting suicide, in fact, we learned in detention. I had heard a abouta male who had killed himself this way.I was in a dormitory of 6 people. Fortunately, one of my friends, aroommate saw what I was about to do. She came and calmed me downand said ‘No you have to stop that.’ She also let the others in the dormknow and they said the same thing, not to do this.They calmed me down and sat with me and advised me to take it easyand they calmed me down. They said, they can’t go back to sleepbecause they were afraid to go back to sleep because of what I might do.One of my friends brought out a bible, and we did some prayingtogether. I became very relieved with all of the advice I was getting, andthey also pointed out other detainees who had spent even longer periodsand had still won their cases.After that I never tried to kill myself again. I did nothing again, alsobecause a woman who came every Sunday pointed out that God has forbiddenpeople to kill themselves and that would be a sin.76 FROM PERSECUTION TO PRISON