Mental Health in Australian Detention Centres

Recently there have been many cases of mental health traumas in Australian detention centres.

There have been cases of many children’s and adults having chronic post-traumatic stress disorder during and after detention.

Recent wide-spread riots at detention centers across Australia are a reflection that mandatory detention has a negative impact on mental health of asylum seekers.

More than 6800 asylum seekers mostly from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq arrived in Australia in 2010 and hundreds more have arrived this year. As detention centres are become more overcrowded, stays are longer and there are reportedly a growing number of self-harm and suicide attempts.

Hundreds of detainees have burnt down buildings in Christmas Island detention center to express their anger over lengthy delays in processing and the rejection of asylum claims.

There were 79 recorded incidents of self-harm in detention centers, compared with 39 of the previous financial year.

Assessment of children and families in detention found that all of 10 children assessed aged between six and 17 fulfilled criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression with suicidal ideation.

The plight of children in detention is illustrated by the case of Shayan Badraie, who was five years old when first detained in 2000. He was in the Woomera and Villawood detention centres until 2002.While in detention, Shayan saw attempted suicides, self-harm and abuse. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was described as being in a catatonic state of distress.

There have been a couple rape claims in Australian Detention Centres. On March 23 a 23-year-old male Iranian asylum seeker claimed he was raped by other asylum seekers at a detention centre on Christmas Island. The man told detention centre medical staff that he had been raped by several men the previous day at the Phosphate Hill camp. It is understood he claimed some of the men warned him that they would kill him if he reported the attacks. The man is believed to have since been moved to a protective unit for his safety.

And in other case a 5-year-old boy has allegedly been raped by three men while they were detained in a refugee camp in Western Australia. The claims say that the boy was forced to look at a porn magazine, and then reenact what he saw in the magazine. The claims are being investigated.

Detainees in Australian immigration centres have poor mental and physical health, according to a study by the University of Wollongong, NSW. 40% of those held for 2 years or longer developed new mental health symptoms. A third of Australia's 7375 detainees are seeking asylum under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Many are traumatized, with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, and about 20% have been tortured, imprisoned for political offences, or have witnessed murder of family or friends.

Long-term detention of asylum seekers is not only violation of their human rights, it is damaging to their health. Many experience depression, mental anguish, trauma and psychological damage in detention Centres. And yet at the end they might not get a visa, after all what they have been thru. If the governments don’t want any refuges then why attempt to go their thinking that they might get lucky. Why not try a legal and a safe way to migrate.