Toxic Asylum

Dermot Ryan

Vol.96, No.381, March 2007

There have been literally thousands of studies in recent decades of refugee mental health; but these have focussed on “programme” (i.e., invited) refugees – rather than on those fleeing the homeland because they considered themselves oppressed .

There has been a similar surge of studies on the human impact of stress in general. These, however, have targeted individuals in stress-inducing professions and also veterans of traumatic experiences such as natural disasters. And so it is that although in 2005 the world statistic for asylum-seekers reached 668,000, this population has been the subject of only a handful of studies. Their continuing plight as victims of the asylum-seeking process itself, requires psychological research; but we seem to be confronted with a case of “Let’s not go there”.

To turn now to that actual asylum-process and its stressful conditions. In the host country, the newcomers find themselves under a cloud of suspicion. From 1992 to 2000, the number of asylum-applicants in Ireland rose from 39 to 10,938 – and people here tend to regard them as eyeing-up future opportunities (“spongers”), rather than as genuine targets of oppression in the past. We need to remember too that if they suffered any hardship severe enough to threaten survival – destitution, for instance – their flight was justified : they do not have to be refugees from war.

While their application is being processed, asylum-seekers are forbidden paid employment; and the acceptance of an “allowance” is counter-cultural for many. Further, this weekly dole comes to only €19.10; it limits access to leisure activities (these being in short supply within the assigned “direct provision” hostels). As regards accommodation, sometimes one bedroom houses half-a-dozen persons.

This is a population who are exposed to extremely high levels of stress (including the possible trauma of having their application rejected) - in situations with severely limited access to key resources, such as social support, employment, language skills. It is a regime quite capable of undermining personhood – and can be justifiably characterized as “toxic”.