scholarly journals Mental health in immigration detention: A comparison of foreign national ex‐prisoners and other detainees

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-287
Author(s):  
Piyal Sen ◽  
Grace Crowley ◽  
Claira Moro ◽  
Karen Slade ◽  
Al Aditya Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
Immigration Detention

scholarly journals Mental health morbidity among people subject to immigration detention in the UK: a feasibility study

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 628-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sen ◽  
J. Arugnanaseelan ◽  
E. Connell ◽  
C. Katona ◽  
A. A. Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Psychiatric Morbidity ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
The Uk

Aims.The UK has one of the largest systems of immigration detention in Europe.. Those detained include asylum-seekers and foreign national prisoners, groups with a higher prevalence of mental health vulnerabilities compared with the general population. In light of little published research on the mental health status of detainees in immigration removal centres (IRCs), the primary aim of this study was to explore whether it was feasible to conduct psychiatric research in such a setting. A secondary aim was to compare the mental health of those seeking asylum with the rest of the detainees.Methods.Cross-sectional study with simple random sampling followed by opportunistic sampling. Exclusion criteria included inadequate knowledge of English and European Union nationality. Six validated tools were used to screen for mental health disorders including developmental disorders like Personality Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability, as well as for needs assessment. These were the MINI v6, SAPAS, AQ-10, ASRS, LDSQ and CANFOR. Demographic data were obtained using a participant demographic sheet. Researchers were trained in the use of the screening battery and inter-rater reliability assessed by joint ratings.Results.A total of 101 subjects were interviewed. Overall response rate was 39%. The most prevalent screened mental disorder was depression (52.5%), followed by personality disorder (34.7%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (20.8%). 21.8% were at moderate to high suicidal risk. 14.9 and 13.9% screened positive for ASD and ADHD, respectively. The greatest unmet needs were in the areas of intimate relationships (76.2%), psychological distress (72.3%) and sexual expression (71.3%). Overall presence of mental disorder was comparable with levels found in prisons. The numbers in each group were too small to carry out any further analysis.Conclusion.It is feasible to undertake a psychiatric morbidity survey in an IRC. Limitations of the study include potential selection bias, use of screening tools, use of single-site study, high refusal rates, the lack of interpreters and lack of women and children in study sample. Future studies should involve the in-reach team to recruit participants and should be run by a steering group consisting of clinicians from the IRC as well as academics.

Violence by any other name: constructing immigration crises, the threat of the sick refugee and rationalising immigration detention through moral panic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Adjekum ◽  
Ameil J. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Health It ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Health Aid ◽  
Political Conditions

This article is concerned with the employment of pathologising discourses of mental health and trauma by the mainstream media as they pertain to the treatment of migrants in detention in Canada. Using critical discourse analysis, this research contrasts mainstream media coverage of four major publications on immigration detention. It explores the media’s role in the (re)creation of refugee discourse, and as a purveyor of racial ideology, which problematises people of colour and demands state intervention in the form of mental health aid. The resulting discourse pathologises the refugee identity and simultaneously obscures the socio-political conditions and violence that necessitates their departure from their home countries. As refugee discourse is infused with biomedical understandings of mental health, it also legitimises the nation state’s practice of coercive social control for these populations through detention.

scholarly journals Mental health and immigration detention

2013 ◽  
Vol 199 (11) ◽  
pp. 721-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Triggs
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Immigration Detention

Subjectivity and identity in detention: Punishment and society in a global age

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Bosworth
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Foreign National ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Global Age

This article draws on ethnographic research that I conducted in five British immigration removal centres from November 2009 to June 2011, and considers the challenges these institutions pose to our understanding of penal power. These centres contain a complex mix of foreign national citizens including former and current asylum seekers, those without visas, visa over-stayers and post-sentence foreign national prisoners. For many non-British offenders, a period of confinement in an immigration detention centre is now, effectively, part of their punishment. What are the implications of this dual confinement and (how) can we understand it within the intellectual framework of punishment and society?

scholarly journals The mass release of migrants from UK immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic: what can be learned?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Lauren Z. Waterman ◽  
Mishka Pillay ◽  
Cornelius Katona
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Continuity Of Care ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
International Evidence ◽  
Mass Release

Summary Convincing international evidence demonstrates that immigration detention adversely affects mental health. During the COVID-19 outbreak, additional concerns were raised about the safety and appropriateness of immigration detention. Consequently, several hundred migrants were released en masse from UK immigration detention centres, and few new detentions took place. Over 70% fewer migrants were held in detention centres in June 2020 compared with December 2019. This large ‘natural experiment’ has demonstrated that detaining fewer migrants is possible and it provides an opportunity to review the necessity for large-scale detention for the purpose of immigration control, as well as its impact on health inequalities. Additionally, given that detainee release arrangements had already been considered unsafe prior to the pandemic, clinicians and service providers should take into consideration that many of those released may not be receiving adequate post-release continuity of care.

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