A new humanitarian emergency: Refugees and mental health in Turkey

Abstract

Warfare in different parts of the world has led to a humanitarian emergency: forced displacement of millions of people. Global forced displacement in 2014 was the highest displacement on record since WW 2. By the end-2014, 59.5 million individuals forcibly displaced worldwide, as a result of persecution, armed conflicts, general violence, wars, or human rights violations. The number of individuals forced to leave their homes per day reached to 42,500 in 2014, hence, increased 4 times in the last 4 years. Top five refugee hosting countries are Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan. While Turkey hosted 1.6 million forced displaced people in 2014; it is estimated that this number reached 2.5 million by the end of 2015.

Forced displacement of people due to warfare may be considered as a psychosocial earthquake. Especially after the deaths of thousands of them in the Mediterranean in the last couple years has brought this issue sharply into the focus of the whole world. While the deaths of the forced displaced people on across the borders of the whole world in the first nine months of 2014 were slightly over 4000; it reached the same number of human loss only in the Mediterranean region in 2015.

Refugees fleeing with few possessions leading to neighboring or more developed countries face many life-threatening risks on the way, as they have nowhere to turn. A refugee is a person who has lost the past for an unknown future. Experiences of loss and danger are imprinted in their selves. It is shown that, in the short/medium term, 60% suffer from mental disorders, e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, psychosis, and dissociative disorders. In the long term, existing evidence suggests that mental disorders tend to be highly prevalent in war refugees even many years after resettlement. This increased risk may not only be a consequence of exposure to wartime trauma but may also be influenced by post-migration socioeconomic factors.

In fact, “we are seeing here the immense costs of not ending wars, of failing to resolve or prevent conflicts.” Once more, psychiatry and mental health workers are facing the mental health consequences of persecution, general violence, wars, and human rights violations caused by the current prevailing economy-politics and socio-politics. So, a serious challenge here is avoiding the medicalization of social phenomena. This presentation will discuss the issue of forced displaced people considering it as a humanitarian tragedy with some examples of its mental health consequences from Turkey.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.