Protect asylum seekers from abuse and neglect

WE refer to Cormac O’Keeffe’s moving article in your newspaper (Dec 5) and to the findings of a study by psychiatrist Dr Sayed Irtaza Hussein, which points to the high rates of psychiatric illness among asylum seekers, and to the fact that the centre where they live is “like a prison”.

Unfortunately, our experience through working with asylum seekers in our legal advocacy service very much reflects the doctor’s findings. In addition, we are regularly told about abuses of power that residents experience at the hands of some of the centre managers.

Most residents are unwilling to make a complaint to the manager at the local centre because they do not want to risk alienating the centres manager. They are unwilling to make their fears known to the section of the Department of Justice that oversees the centres because they are afraid that it will jeopardise their claim for protection in the state. We listen to stories about the mismanagement of the centres and of the system, with a sometimes hopeless sense of watching history repeat itself.