The NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Wednesday urged Latvian authorities to put an «immediate» end to «arbitrary» detentions of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in the country given the serious consequences for their health.
«This type of detention has a serious impact on the mental health of individuals,» explained Georgina Brown, MSF’s project coordinator in Lithuania and Latvia. «Our teams have witnessed high levels of stress, anxiety, which can lead to self-harm,» she warned.
In a statement, the organization has denounced that half a hundred people are detained in the migrant detention centers of Mucenieki, near the Latvian capital, as well as in Daugavpils, closer to the border with Belarus.
«Many of these men, women, boys and girls have already experienced traumatic events that caused them to flee their homes. Their prolonged detention risks adding further trauma to existing vulnerabilities,» said Brown, who asserted that these centers are subject to heavy video surveillance, which limits the migrants’ privacy.
In addition, most of them do not have cell phones as they are confiscated upon arrival at the center and their communications are severely restricted. This limits access to information and support networks, according to Brown, who said that the people in these centers «do not understand what is happening to them».
«They feel like they are in prison but not knowing what they have done wrong and not knowing the end date of their sentence. We know of people who have been locked up like this for more than eight months. They are living a nightmare,» he pointed out.
The NGO expressed alarm at the «illegal detention of children in these centers» and said that this «harms their development and well-being». «Our family fled Afghanistan because my daughters were not allowed to go to school and there was no freedom under the Taliban regime,» said Khalid, an Afghan man held in one of the Latvian detention centers.
Children in detention face serious risks to their psychological development and regularly show signs of serious deficiencies. «Children in detention lack essential elements for their development, such as play and school, and are indirectly affected by the stress their parents are under,» said Heidi Berg, an MSF psychologist.
«I get bored a lot. I can only play outside in the fenced area for a few moments a day. Every minute is counted,» lamented a child in one of the centers visited by MSF members.
In this regard, MSF urged the Latvian authorities to put an end to the «irregular and arbitrary» detention of displaced people and called for the implementation of «alternatives to these detentions», including the immediate transfer of these people to «safe places» where they can receive humanitarian assistance and protection.
