Essay On Asylum Seekers

INTRODUCTION

Annually, around 900,000 refugees apply for asylum worldwide. [1] Among asylees, history of human rights abuse and torture is quite frequent, [2,3,4] and among foreign- born patients in urban primary care clinics, the prevalence of history of torture could be up to 11% overall [5,6] with much higher rates among subgroups. An asylum seeker is defined as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion; is already in the United States; and is seeking admission at a port of entry. [7] In 2012, close to 30,000 people coming from a wide variety of countries from Asia and Africa were granted asylum in the US [7]. Asylum seekers are uniquely vulnerable in that they often suffer psychological sequelae of their experiences. There are significant long-term and short-term consequences of human rights abuses including but not limited to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, chronic pain syndromes and physical limitations from physical trauma. [8,9,10,11,12] Refugee asylum seekers encounter many barriers to health care access, including emotional and mental health problems, discrimination, significant challenges of resettlement, fear of deportation, and social assimilation and language barriers. [13,14,15,16,17,28,29,20]

Health Care System and Asylum Seekers

The health system does not currently provide practical opportunities for addressing mental health issues of refugee asylum seekers in part due to lack of a paradigm for routine and efficient detection and therapeutic modalities and a myriad of other rea...

... middle of paper ...

...ices and psychiatric treatment requires tailoring to the individual or community needs. Shouldn’t we facilitate other supportive modalities to fill in for the lack of validity and efficacy of the current diagnostic and therapeutic approaches? The United States is home to many immigrant groups and is a beacon for people seeking protection. As health providers in the United States, we have the privilege of working with diverse populations including asylees and refugees, offering and participating in the global health services on our soil, and trying to appropriately heal and address the well-being of people entrapped between cultures and systems. The United States welcomes thousands of refugees each year. This welcome can be extended and supported by expanding our cultural understanding and addressing of mental illnesses and psychosocial factors affecting their health.