Detention is used in a mostly indiscriminate manner with little deference to personal choice and preferences.  Detainees can do little to alter their circumstances within the detention centre.  They must accept the state of living conditions within the detention centre, and cohabitation with persons of differing  nationalities, cultures and even personalities and temperaments; and they must accept the restriction on their freedom to move about as they please, even within the confines of the detention centre.  Although exceptions may exist in some Member States for persons with special needs, the ‘average detainee’ will find that he or she is unable to exercise a degree of personal choice and must therefore accept detention as one accepts a punishment, rather than an administrative procedure.  

Persons with officially recognised needs, such as minors, young women and the medically ill, are indeed negatively impacted by detention.  The adult environment of detention immediately puts minors at a disadvantage, especially if they are unaccompanied, because they are vulnerable to the behaviour of the staff and to the prison-like atmosphere of detention, for example.  Our research shows that women, especially between the age of 18 and 24, especially suffer from adverse mental health impacts.  The medically ill may not be able to receive the treatment they need because the detention centre only provides for basic medical care.  

In almost every case, the study shows that detention has a distinctively deteriorative effect upon the individual person.  Only in very few cases do detainees describe their personal situation as having improved after detention; and just as few say that detention has not impacted them whatsoever.  The vast majority of detainees that we accompany describe a scenario in which the environment of detention weakens their personal condition.  The prison-like environments existing in many detention centres, the isolation from the ‘outside world’, the unreliable flow of information and the disruption of a life plan lead to mental health impacts such as depression, self-uncertainty and psychological stress, as well as physical health impacts such as decreased appetite and varying degrees of insomnia.  The manner in how detainees see themselves is significantly impacted  by detention.  

In this context, self-perception becomes an important indicator of the effects of detention because as an administrative measure, it should not bring such detrimental personal consequences.

Our latest research shows that detention – frequently implemented as a tool of asylum and immigration policymaking for the EU and  its Member States – leads to high rates of vulnerability in people.  It calls into question the proportionality and necessity of detention in relation to the ends it seeks to achieve: that is, to systematically manage migration flows so that States may enforce their asylum and immigration policies.

The human cost of detention is too high. The negative consequences of detention and its harmful effects on individual persons are disproportionate to their actual situations, in that they have committed no crime. It is unnecessary to detain persons and thus make them vulnerable to the harmful effects of detention because non-custodial alternatives to detention do exist.

Taken from, Becoming Vulnerable in Detention, JRS Europe, June 2010, pp.104-105

TESTIMONIES FROM PERSONS IN DETENTION

Quotes from persons interviewed for the report Becoming Vulnerable in Detention. Their testimonies were collected between January and September 2009.

The need for information

• "I filed an application to the State agency for refugees, and I want to know what is going on and why I am still here in the detention centre." Male, 30-years-old, asylum seeker detained in Bulgaria for 136 days (p.37)
• "I want to know whether I will go back to Albania. They keep telling me that 'you will go tomorrow' but I never end up leaving. I want to konw what is going to happen." Male, 16-years-old, illegally staying migrant detained in Greece (p.37)
• "Actually, I don't know what this centre here is meant for." Female, 24-years-old, asylum seeker detained in Belgium (p.37)

Impact on personal safety

• "The soldiers can come in when they want and beat us. In case of fire, electrical accident, etc., we cannot escape. WIth the rubbish, inside the room where we sleep, we risk getting sick." Male, 46-years-old, asylum seeker detained in Malta for 161 days (p.49)
• "He beat me with a stick. Somebody was shouting ,but the policman said it was I who was shouting. He came to me and asked me if I was the person shouting. I repolied in English that I didn't understand. Then he told me, 'speak in Greek'. I said again in English that I didn't understand. Then he walked towards me and started beating me." Male, 17-years-old, Somali illegally staying migrant detained in Greece (p.51)

The need for medical care

• "They give us drugs without giving its name, even for paracetamol. They always say 'it will pass, it's only stress'. I don't understandy how they work. Not everything is stress ... it's real." Female, 24-years-old, Cameroonian rejected asylum seeker detained in Belgium (p.58)
• "The medical staff makes us pay for medicine. As a refugee, how can I pay? They offer only basic treatment. The doctors do not care about my situation." Male, 26-years-old, Turkish illegally staying migrant detained in Lithuania (p. 58)

Impact on physical and mental health

• "In detention, the pain started to come because of the stress. The old pain started to come all over my body. My heart, the stress, my head and the pain: that is my illness. I'm too stressed. There is too much pressure so I have to calm down." Male, 20-years-old, Sierra Leonean asylum seeker detained in Belgium (p.64)
• "I miss my children and wife. The biggest problem is not being able to communicate with them. I do not know if they are alive or dead." Male, 46-years-old, Somali asylum seeker detained in Malta for 167 days (p.67)
• "I am not a criminal, but I am in prison. I have nothing to do for the whole day. It is horrible." Nigerian man detained in Hungary (p.67)

The impact of detention on the individual

• "Tensions, worries about my future, missing home and family, fear of deportation to Russia ... In detention, you have too much energy that you can't use. This keeps you awake." Male, 20-years-old, Russian detained in Latvia for seven months (p.76)
• "The fact that they treat you like any other prisoner: like a criminal when you go to court, or when you go [to the authorities] to answer questions. I made a complaint abou thtat in court. I was not handcuffed, but they put you in a prisoner's car. They way they treat you isn't right." 27-year-old Congolese asylum seeker detained in The Netherlands (p.78)
• "My life is over." 28-year-old Palestinian male detained in Sweden for 15 months at the time of his interview (p.82)

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2005 Vladislav (10.48 KB)

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2005 Drawing of Yari (43.69 KB)

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