Torture in Migration

Silhouettes of refugees walking inside a field as they cross the Greek Macedonian border. Credit: Giannis Papanikos, Shutterstock

Refugees and migrants often experience multiple traumas and complex psychological stress, and their journeys are marked by extreme adversity.

Pre migration and transit routes often involve systemic abuse; According to the UNHCR, refugees and migrants report torture, physical violence, arbitrary detention, kidnapping for ransom, sexual violence and exploitation, enslavement, human trafficking, forced labour, organ removal, robbery, collective expulsions, and refoulement. Surveys from the Center for Victims of Torture show that as many as 44% of refugees and asylum seekers living in the U.S. have survived torture. OHCHR has similarly found that up to 9 out of 10 migrants arriving in Italy from sub-Saharan Africa have suffered torture or ill-treatment in their country of origin or along the migratory route.

Post migration conditions can further worsen trauma. Prolonged or arbitrary detention, overcrowding, solitary confinement, inadequate medical care, pushbacks, and deterrence policies create ongoing fear and instability. These experiences can contribute to PTSD and Complex PTSD, depression, and other psychological impacts. Flawed screening processes along with language barriers, limited specialised care, and trauma related memory difficulties often lead to failures in identifying mental illness or past torture, placing survivors into standard procedures instead of the specialised safeguards required under international standards.

Restart Lebanon shares their experience with the project “Specialized mental health services and support direct food assistance to vulnerable Syrian refugees and affected host country nationals in Lebanon”.

This one-year project has been funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation and had the goal to improve the psycho-social wellbeing of 2,000 vulnerable refugees and host country nationals in North Lebanon, Beirut and Mount Lebanon through the provision of specialized mental health services combined with supportive food assistance. Outstanding results have been achieved through this project and the team from Restart Lebanon shares lessons learned and challenges in this webinar.

In addition, member centres who are responding to the Ukraine crisis joined the conversation and shared their experiences from ongoing mental health and emergency interventions for Ukrainian refugees.

Watch the webinar on MHPSS and Humanitarian Support: How They Work Together

My Heart’s Sister is an initiative led by the Swedish Red Cross University that focuses on women’s experiences of war, torture, and forced migration. The initiative also addresses the underrepresentation of forced migrant women in specialised trauma treatment in Sweden.

The project focuses on women’s experiences of war, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced migration, and develops tailored, gender-sensitive, trauma-informed interventions.

Two 2024 qualitative studies examined this work from complementary perspectives. One explored women patients’ experience of multidisciplinary trauma treatment, finding both meaningful mental and physical improvements and major barriers to care. The other captured service providers’ perspectives, highlighting hidden gender-based violence, women’s resilience, and the need for systemic improvements to make trauma-informed care more accessible and effective.

Watch the Insights – My Heart’s Sister: A Project Exploring Women’s War Experiences and Trauma Treatment in Sweden

Refugee Transitions is a magazine produced by STARTTS (IRCT member in Australia) covering a broad range of refugee and human rights issues. It examines the impact of organised violence and human rights abuses on health, and explores intervention models addressing the health and social needs of refugees. The publication also advocates for the changes needed to assist, empower and strengthen refugee communities throughout their settlement process.