A Safe Haven

Host countries must adopt policies that support refugee women and girls who often have to face sexual violence and abuse during displacement

- Priyali Sur

I just got off the phone with Minara, a 22-year-old refugee woman from Myanmar who lives in SouthEast Delhi. After being admitted to the Department of Psychiatry in Safdarjung Hospital for one month, she has recently returned home to her hut made of plastic sheets, mud and bamboo; currently semi-submerged in water because of the incessant rains. Her hospital discharge summary, a copy of which she sent to me on WhatsApp, reads, “severe depressive disorder” and the advice on it in bold letters states—“never leave the patient alone with sharp objects in the vicinity”. 

Over the phone, Minara cries out, “The conditions in the refugee settlement here haunt me. Some days there are fires, other days it’s flooding. These life-threatening situations remind me of the violence I fled. In those moments I want to kill myself.” Minara is currently six-months pregnant and also has a three-year-old child. 

Minara Begum’s case may sound extreme but it is reflective of what many refugee women globally face. Displaced women fleeing for safety are already scarred by violence, conflict and loss. As they enter their host countries, a volley of biases targeted at them pushes them over the edge. For women refugees, these biases are intersectional; they emerge from their multiple identities—being displaced, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, and sexuality. All of this together has a multiplied detrimental impact on them. High rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been found among refugees, with women having the highest incidence, according to a recent study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a US-based medical research agency.