The oldest torture treatment center in the United States is the Center for Victims of Torture, which was started in 1985 and is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. PHR has a network of health professionals who voluntarily provide medical and psychological evaluations for survivors of torture and other human rights abuses applying for political asylum in the United States. I have participated in this asylum network since 1992 and have conducted nearly 100 evaluations of asylum seekers. Torture is a worldwide health and human rights concern and is documented to occur in more than 90 countries worldwide. For example, among the patients I have cared for are monks and nuns from Tibet, student leaders from Africa, and ordinary citizens from Bosnia.
Torture can have devastating physical and psychological consequences.
I have seen the scars from shackles, the marks from cigarette burns inflicted during interrogation, and the wounds and broken bones from severe beatings. One patient of mine, for example, who was repeatedly submerged in a vat of water while being interrogated, would feel like he was gasping for air whenever he showered or went out in the rain. As a physician caring for survivors of torture and refugee trauma, I am very concerned about the current immigration policy of expedited removal which provides for the immediate deportation of individuals who arrive without valid travel documents. Not surprisingly, torture victims often have to flee their countries without such documents since it is the torturers who control them. Also, I have come to appreciate the extraordinary difficulty asylum seekers and refugees have in recounting their traumatic experiences, even months or years after the events took place.