Torture survivors reject Home Secretary’s assumptions about asylum seekers

Survivors Speak OUT, the torture survivors' network supported by Freedom from Torture, has  expressed its concern at Home Secretary Theresa May's speech to the Conservative Party Conference. Ms May has said she will "get tough" on asylum seekers who she described as "illegal immigrants" who abuse the asylum system, by smuggling themselves into the UK and refusing to settle in other EU countries.

Kolbassia Haoussou, Advocate and Co-ordinator of Survivors Speak OUT, attended the Conference. He said:

"I, and many people like me, who have found refuge in this country, would have obtained no support for overcoming our trauma if we had waited out our lives in resettlement camps. We have not suffered torture any the less because we fled by the asylum route.

Even without the Home Secretary's new proposals the asylum system is hard enough already for people who are badly traumatised by human rights violations. Torture survivors are routinely disbelieved, detained, and denied protection. Even when we present forensic evidence of our torture from doctors this can be ignored or misinterpreted by asylum officials."

He concluded:

"Crucially she wants to re-write the international legal definition of refugees as "illegal immigrants", not people seeking sanctuary from torture and persecution.

I would remind her that the UK's obligation to protect torture survivors stems from a well established principle of international law, enshrined in the UN Convention Against Torture and many other treaties to which the UK is party. There must be no retreat from these principles - many torture survivors might not have recovered and be alive today without them."

For further information, contact Kaye Stearman, Communications Officer, at [email protected] ; Tel: 0207 697 3791 or 07767 303 105