Sydney (Australia), Nov 12 (EFE).- Undocumented people held in extraterritorial detention centers are twenty times more vulnerable to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study published this Tuesday that warns of the risks arising from policies against asylum seekers.
The researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), responsible for the study, considered that policies such as those implemented by Australia (2012-23), when it sent thousands of people to detention centers in the Pacific , generate long-term mental health problems in the “undocumented”, undermining their sense of security and agency about the future.
This study by a team of clinical psychologists at UNSW revealed that people detained in offshore facilities are twenty times more likely to suffer from PTSD and other mental problems compared to those who had been detained within the country’s territory for less than six months. according to the statement from this university based in the city of Sydney.
“We found that if you had been detained on land for more than six months, or at sea for any period of time, the risk of later suffering from PTSD, depression or suicidal ideation was significantly higher, and of a magnitude that really surprised us.” “explained Philippa Specker, lead author of the study, in a statement published by UNSW.
For the purposes of the study, the cases of 990 asylum seekers and refugees who lived in Australia between 2011 and 2018 were analyzed, including 215 who had been detained in centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where the Canberra Executive sent undocumented immigrants. They tried to reach the oceanic country by sea.
The study also revealed, among other issues, that “individuals were 17 to 20 times more likely to report PTSD symptoms if they had spent a lot of time in onshore detention or if they had spent any amount of time in offshore detention.”
“With more than 117 million people forcibly displaced by war, persecution and human rights violations – of which 38 million are refugees – there have never been more people displaced in the world by war and persecution” Specker said.
“At the same time, we see how first world countries apply increasingly restrictive immigration policies for deterrent purposes,” said the clinical psychologist in a veiled allusion to the immigration plans or policies of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom or Italy.EFE
