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Traumatic Experiences of Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Refugees and people from refugee-like backgrounds may have endured multiple traumatic experiences, including torture, because of war, persecution and systemic oppression. These experiences can have profound and long-lasting impacts on their physical, psychological and social wellbeing.
Common experiences include exposure to or direct experience of torture, bombings, killings, kidnappings, sexual violence, arbitrary imprisonment or detention, disappearances and harassment. Many have been forced to flee their homes, endure dangerous journeys and face separation from loved ones. Others experience exploitation, abuse and threats to their safety during flight or displacement.
The cumulative effects of these experiences are compounded by the loss of family and friends, community, safety, home, possessions, livelihood, and control over daily life. Many refugees spend extended periods in precarious conditions – such as refugee camps or urban settings without legal status – where access to food, shelter, health care and education may be limited.
Asylum seekers may also face additional trauma associated with prolonged or indefinite periods of detention. These conditions can exacerbate feelings of uncertainty, powerlessness and distress.
What is torture?
Torture can be inflicted by varying techniques and can take many forms including physical and psychological. However, what makes torture such a horrendous act is not just the intention to inflict severe pain and harm but that it is committed by officials or with the acquiescence of a State (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights).
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1984, and has been ratified by Australia along with other signatories, provides in Article 1 (see below link) an internationally agreed legal definition of torture.
Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
Torture is not merely used to extract information from an unwilling person. The ultimate purpose of torture and organised violence is to institute and reinforce social and political control. This is achieved by attempting to destroy the capacity of the tortured person to function normally and to sustain control over their life, as well as inserting fear into the broader community of which the person belongs.
The Impact of Torture
Torture and persecutory regimes that inflict torture impact the individual, the family, and the community. Refugees and other survivors of torture experience the impact of torture in many different ways. It has a profound, immediate, and long-term impact on physical and psychological health. A high percentage of torture and trauma survivors suffer from extreme levels of depression and anxiety, which manifest in many ways. These can include sleep disorders, recurring and intrusive memories, poor self-esteem, difficulty in concentrating, sadness, fear, anger, psychosomatic complaints, and breakdown in family and personal relationships.
People and communities impacted are often left having safety undermined due to the role of power and control in torture, this can result in survivors feeling unsafe long after the torture has ended and even when they are in a safe environment. Due to the fear and terror caused, as well as the sense of self, identity and culture being shattered, survivors and communities often have difficulty trusting others and a sense of suspicion, as well as feeling like they don’t belong or embedded feelings of guilt, and shame.
Torture Survivors in Australia
Since the end of World War II, survivors of torture and trauma have migrated to Australia through the refugee, humanitarian, and general immigration programs, fleeing conflicts in the Asia Pacific region, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. Many people living in Australia have also fled conflicts and forced displacement and arrived seeking asylum.
Survivors have a right to access rehabilitation and in enshrined in the following international human rights instruments, to which Australia is a signatory (Find out more from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights):
Article 12. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. (UN General Assembly, 1966, n.p.).
Article 14. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment:
Each State Party shall ensure its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of the victim as a result of an act of torture, his dependents shall be entitled to compensation (UN General Assembly, 1984, n.p.)
Article 25. Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (UN General Assembly, 1984, n.p.).
FASSTT is committed to ensuring that survivors of torture who settle in Australia have access to culturally safe, survivor centred, trauma-informed support provided through the eight agencies. Survivors are able to access support from FASSTT agencies regardless of the length of time since they arrived in Australia.
FASSTT agencies have a specialised understanding of the terror, helplessness, isolation, and degradation caused by torture and ensures that all supports provided, whether at an individual, family, group, or community level focus on the following:
- Restoring safety, agency, and hope,
- Fostering relationships and culturally restorative practices that reduce isolation and rebuild a sense of belonging,
- Empowering survivors to reclaim identity, purpose, and value,
- Supporting communities to lead, participate and heal collectively by building capacity, strengthening intergenerational resilience, and affirming cultural identity, dignity, and voice.
To learn more about FASSTTs rehabilitation work with survivors of torture, see Rebuilding Shattered Lives (2nd Ed) written by Dr Ida Kaplan and produced by the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture inc.
