title: Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over the past decade, developed Western countries have supplied increasingly stringent measures to discourage those seeking asylum.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the longer-term mental health effects of mandatory detention and subsequent temporary protection on refugees.
  
  
  METHODS
  Lists of names provided by community leaders were supplemented by snowball sampling to recruit 241 Arabic-speaking Mandaean refugees in Sydney (60% of the total adult Mandaean population). Interviews assessed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive episodes, and indices of stress related to past trauma, detention and temporary protection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A multilevel model which included age, gender, family clustering, pre-migration trauma and length of residency revealed that past immigration detention and ongoing temporary protection each contributed independently to risk of ongoing PTSD, depression and mental health-related disability. Longer detention was associated with more severe mental disturbance, an effect that persisted for an average of 3 years after release.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Policies of detention and temporary protection appear to be detrimental to the longer-term mental health of refugees.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, Level 4, Health Services Building, Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, NSW 2170, Australia. z.steel@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Zachary
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.forename: Derrick
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Silove
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: Shakeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Momartin
authors.forename: Bushra
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alzuhairi
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Susljik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000208:ethnology; D007493:Iraq / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012036:Refugees / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D013997:Time Factors