Saeed Hassanloo
Death of Iranian asylum seeker prompts calls for more mental health support
12 Sep 2016 – ABC NEWS
An Iranian man who sparked nationwide outcry during his 44-day hunger strike last year has become the latest in a number of refugee and asylum seeker suicides in Australia this year.
Saeed Hassanloo started his hunger strike at a West Australian detention centre when he was told his claim for refugee status had been rejected after more than four years in detention.
He was admitted to Royal Perth Hospital in March last year but broke his month-long hunger strike after supporters gathered outside the hospital and held a candlelight vigil for him.
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After leaving hospital, Mr Hassanloo was returned to detention before eventually being let into the community on a bridging visa.
He had been living in Hobart for most of this year, until he took his life a fortnight ago.
According to Monash University’s Australian Border Deaths Database, there have been seven suicides of refugees and asylum seekers living in the Australian community since March last year.
Suicide prevention researcher Gerry Georgatos said he was aware of 12 suicides outside of detention in the past two and a half years.
“This is more suicides outside of detention than within detention and it evidences the irreparable damage to people incarcerated in detention for unjustifiable periods and in conditions much worse than the general Australian prison experience,” he said.
“The individuals coming through immigration detention, having fled various persecutions and various traumas, are at elevated risk once they have been detained for months and years on end.
“For so many to suicide relatively soon after release from immigration detention describes a constancy of traumas and irreparable damage.
“It is evident that former refugees who come through immigration detention are among the nation’s most vulnerable to suicide.”
‘The torture does not end’
Tasmanian Asylum Seeker Support coordinator Helen Semler said she was aware of two suicides, a refugee and an asylum seeker, in Hobart in the past two months.
The other man, who was also Iranian, had been living in Hobart for some years and is believed to have gained permanent protection.
“The torture does not end once they have left detention,” Ms Semler said.
“They can’t settle because there is nothing certain in their lives other than the fact that they are here at the moment. They have not seen their family for years. Some of them have never seen their children.
“I had a [refugee] friend just the other day telling me ‘you know, I think I might be better off dead’.”
‘Lethal hopelessness’ haunts former asylum seekers
Murdoch University Law Associate Professor Mary Anne Kenny said the biggest stressor for most asylum seekers after they leave detention was the uncertainty around their future.
“They do not know whether they will be allowed to remain in Australia or have to return to a country where they fear being persecuted,” Professor Kenny said.
“They also do not know if they are found to be refugees for how long they will be allowed to remain.
“Forced separation from families and loved ones is also a constant concern and worry. These combined factors are leading to a situation my academic colleagues and I are terming ‘lethal hopelessness’.”
Professor Kenny said she had no doubt there would continue to be a pattern of suicides in the community under the current immigration system, due to the difficulty around gaining permanent protection.
“Even if significant services or supports are provided to them, the core issue of uncertainty that is central to the policy will lead to worsening mental decline for a significant number of refugees,” she said.
Mr Hassanloo had been receiving support from the Red Cross while living in Hobart, and acting director Kat Faludi-Ball said his death showed the heightened vulnerability experienced by people seeking asylum.
“Despite all their efforts to make a new life for themselves, the impacts of successive traumas can be incredibly profound and difficult to overcome,” Dr Faludi-Ball said.
“Physical and mental health are major considerations for people who often have pre-existing traumas, which can be compounded during their migration journey along with their experience of detention or prolonged visa uncertainty.
“We work directly with people to connect them to appropriate services that seek to address these issues — including torture and trauma counselling, mental health services and other available supports.”
Greens Immigration spokesman Nick McKim said Australia’s detention regime caused psychological harm.
“When you set up a detention regime that deliberately sets out to cause psychological harm to people you have to be prepared for the fact that those people, some of them, will self-harm and tragically some of them will suicide,” he said.
“And the Australian Government has to wear some of the responsibility for that.”
In a statement, a spokesperson from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the department was “aware of the reported death of a former bridging visa holder living in the community in Tasmania”.
“The Department has mental health nurses, counsellors and psychologists based at our immigration detention centres (IDCs) onshore, as well as consulting psychiatrists who attend the centres as required,” the spokesperson said.
“The Nauru and Manus refugee processing centres both have mental health care staff onsite, including mental health nurses, counsellors, torture and trauma counsellors, psychologists and a psychiatrist. There are additional mental health care staff based at the Nauru Settlement clinic.”