I was recently invited to talk at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine about refugee mental health at a seminar. This was a great chance to bring together my professional and personal interests in migration, as two generations of my family have been through migration. I spoke about the asylum system and mental health challenges of refugees and migrants from a public health lens.
The full talk can be accessed via this page. I have included a summary of my key points below:
- People seeking asylum make up approximately 0.6% of the UK population
- The UK’s asylum system cost approx £4bn in 2022/23, with the largest cost being accommodation at £2.28bn on hotels in 2022/23
- There is a hostile environment and the 2023 Illegal Migration Bill added to this
- A few different schemes exist for the reception of refugees, including the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme
- The main challenges of the asylum system include: Large backlog, high staff turnover, inefficiency, and long delays on application outcomes
- The asylum journey can be modelled as follows, based on the report I produced with my colleagues
- In the same report, we found five interdependent components of integration: Social inclusion; Living conditions; Employment; Education & Language; Health
- 50% of Syrian refugees have anxiety and depression in Syrian refugees and the rate of mental illness in detention facilities is closer to 3 out of 4, showing how important accommodation is for mental health.
- Risk factors for worse mental health in refugees include:
- No right to work and small asylum support package causing financial concerns
- Navigating complex legislation and uncertainty
- Trauma, abuse, torture, fighting in the journey
- Isolation and poor living conditions
- Delays in the application outcome
- Despite the prevalence of mental health conditions, there are barriers to accessing mental health care including:
- Trust in the system for accessing healthcare for their problems
- Cultural and language barriers
- Stigma
- Uncertainty in legal status and entitlements of healthcare
- Temporary camps becoming long term locations, poor living conditions, inadequate healthcare
- Preoccupation with trying to settle and find employment
- I ended the talk with concluding remarks on what we need going forward:
- An integration package based on the aforementioned research: Expedited Visa Process + English Language Support + Employment Support + Specialised Healthcare, which we found earns a £1.2 billion net economic benefit if it is adequately provided
- Compassion in the wider system
The talk can be accessed here.
Preeti Kaur 