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Confinement in immigration detention centres for extended periods of time can have severe, psychologically disabling effects on asylum seekers. Aamer Sultan is a medical practitioner who fled persecution in Iraq after providing casualty medical care to Shiite Muslim rebels. He has been detained in the Villawood Detention Centre, Sydney, since May 1999, as his claim for protection under the United Nations Convention has not been endorsed by Australian authorities. He can not be returned to Iraq because Australia currently has no diplomatic ties with Iraq and no international flights go to Iraq. As a health professional and a bilingual Arabic/English speaker, he has acted as a confidant for many detainees. His observations are supplemented by those of clinical psychologist Kevin O'Sullivan, who provided psychological treatment for over 50 asylum seekers during a recent 12-month contract with the same detention centre. • The process of applying for refugee status in Australia is complex, lengthy and often poorly understood by asylum seekers. • The psychological reaction patterns of detainees whose claims for asylum are unsuccessful are characterised by stages of increasing depression, punctuated by periods of protest, as feelings of injustice overwhelm them. These reactions have a marked secondary impact on their children in detention. • The prolonged detention of asylum seekers appears to cause serious psychological harm. Even if many of those who spend long periods of time are not deemed to have proven their refugee claims, this administrative decision should not be grounds for inflicting grave ongoing psychological injury on the applicants.
Sultan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.