Sir, - Refugees experience many losses, including loss of family, home, possessions, work, status, culture, friends. Less obvious losses include loss of trust, self esteem and self respect and loss of personal identity. They have to cope with difficulties in adapting to the new culture and its. language; uncertainties associated with the application for refugee status and concerns about what will happen to them if this is not granted; lack of permission to work; anxiety and guilt about family members left behind; and often fear of being traced by the state they fled from. They will frequently experience discrimination and racism, as is substantiated by recent reports in the media.
Under the Geneva Convention we have obligations towards those genuine refugees who seek asylum in our country, and under the European Convention against Torture, signed by Ireland in September 1992 but yet to be ratified, we have specific obligations to those refugees who have been tortured. International figures indicate that between 5 per cent and 35 per cent of refugees have been tortured and recent studies in both Denmark and Holland put their figures at around 50 per cent.
It is easy to stereotype refugees but most, if given half a chance to rebuild their lives, want nothing more than to resettle and contribute positively in the host country.
In research carried out in 1979 on the development of psychological problems in Jewish children in the Netherlands who were separated from their parents during the second World War it was found that what happened in the phase relating to exile and asylum seeking was crucial for the subsequent mental functioning of the children concerned, and that those who experienced unfavourable circumstances during the asylum seeking period had less favourable adaptation 25 years later than those who experienced favourable circumstances during this phase.
This indicates the importance of appropriate support for refugees and particularly tortured refugees. This presents a challenge to the incoming government and to our society at large to ensure that the needs of a very vulnerable - group of people looking to this country for help in rebuilding their lives are adequately and humanely met. - Yours, etc.,
Psychotherapist,
Lower Fitzwilliam Street,
Dublin 1.