To investigate the consistency of autobiographical memory of people seeking asylum, in light of the assumption that discrepancies in asylum seekers’ accounts of persecution mean that they are fabricating their stories.
Decisions on refugee status rely heavily on judgments about how individuals present themselves and their histories. For example, late or non-disclosure of sensitive personal information may be assumed to be a result of fabrication by the asylum claimant. Such assumptions however, if incorrect, can lead to genuine refugees in need of protection being refused asylum. … Continue reading Refugees Experiences of Home Office Interviews A Qualitative Study Focussing on the Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information
In order to claim recognition as a refugee, individuals must give a plausible account of persecution. Decision makers must then decide on the truthfulness of the account, and whether the person fits the legal definition of a refugee. Decision makers often have little corroborating evidence, and must make an assessment of credibility, largely a subjective … Continue reading What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments?
Procedures for determining refugee status across Europe are being speeded up, despite the high prevalence of mental health difficulties among asylum seekers. An assurance given is that vulnerable applicants will be identified and excluded from accelerated procedures. Although experts have recommended assessments to be undertaken by experienced clinicians, this is unlikely to happen for political … Continue reading Non-clinicians judgments about asylum seekers mental health: how do legal representatives of asylum seekers decide when to request medico-legal reports?
The involvement of U.S. psychologists and their influence on torture in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq provides previously unrevealed evidence of U.S. torture and military tactical policy, and points to probable military goals the U.S. Administration has denied. What is revealed is that current torture has been designed and used, not so much for interrogation as … Continue reading Psychology and U.S. psychologistsin torture and war in the Middle East
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Background: Reintegration after war brings with it enormous challenges. One such challenge is to find appropriate methods of rehabilitation during the reintegration process. This article describes the rehabilitation, using traditional therapy, of formerly abducted adolescents exposed to war events who have experienced psychological distress. Methodology: In a cross-sectional design, 294 adolescents aged 12 to19 at … Continue reading Mental states of adolescents exposedto war in Uganda: finding appropriatemethods of rehabilitation
Patients with a history of extremely traumatic experiences show a complex pattern of psychological and physical disorders which represents a special challenge for psychiatric care. This problem is described using the example of the psychiatric/ psychotherapeutic treatment of 13 civil war refugees with a history of traumatic experiences from former Yugoslavia in psychiatric treatment at … Continue reading Psychiatric treatmentfor extremely traumatized civil warrefugees from former Yugoslavia
Background: In order to recognise a refugee in a receiving state, decision makers have to make a judgment based on background information and the account given by the individual asylum seeker. Whilst recognising that this is a very difficult decision, we examine one of the assumptions made in this process: that an account which is … Continue reading Should discrepant accountsgiven by asylum seekersbe taken as proof of deceit?