Asylum Seekers’ Human Rights in Australian Immigration Detention Centers:

What Role for Mental Health Practitioners?

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the ethical dilemma faced by mental health practitioners in dealing with the way asylum seekers are treated in Australian detention centers. Drawing on recent research exploring the impacts of post-migration stressors on asylum seekers’ physical and mental state and on the contentious living conditions in Australian detention centers, this paper puts forth the deleterious effects of Australia’s immigration detention policies on the mental health of detainees. Furthermore, the role to be played by mental health practitioners in the defense of asylum seekers’ rights in Australia must be questioned. The choice of working within an inhumane system or of denouncing it from the outside represents a dilemma that has no definitive answer, but that deserves to be discussed.