Pride or Prejudice: How we treat asylum seekers

Speaker: Dr Ashu Madan

Abstract: I hope to shine a light on traumas which force people to flee from their homes, journeys such as those undertaken through Libya and over the Mediterranean or many thousands of miles overland from Afghanistan, or those crossing the English Channel and their precarious lives even on reaching this country of relative safety. Nearly 20 years ago I was commissioned to provide GP services to residents in a hostel who were primarily asylum seekers and vulnerable local council clients. It was suggested that there would be significant psychiatric and physical morbidity. Having trained in the “war-zone” of South-East London where the range of clinical presentations reflected the extremely ethnically-diverse local population: colds, malaria, sexual-health, gunshot wounds and more, I accepted the role. What I saw was a more significant level of deprivation and unmet health need. This vulnerable group of people in the hostel had fled their homes for a variety of reasons, ranging from the Rwandan genocide, war and bombings, sexual servitude to domestic violence. They may have been enlisted as child soldiers. Many have been trafficked and exposed to horrendous abuses en route or even here in UK. They may have lost loved ones or be pregnant as a result of rape. At least a third of asylum seekers are survivors of torture. They may be adults, unaccompanied minors or families. My talk highlights the many complex reasons people flee, and seek safety and how their reception in host nations and access to healthcare for this group of the population remains patchy and, often, second rate, with the pandemic having exacerbated inequities in access to healthcare.

Bio: Dr Ashu Madan is an experienced GP of 26 years standing having trained and worked in South London both as a salaried GP and GP Partner. During this time, managing particularly challenged patient groups, she set up a GP clinic in two hostels used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers and In 2004 she began on site GP clinics three sessions a week in a 150 bed hostel used by the Home Office. This included providing general practice, mental health and advocacy support for victims of torture and trafficking, child health surveillance, complex women’s healthcare (including FGM cases), and managing infectious disease outbreaks with Public Health England. Much of the need stemmed from the mental health consequences and impact on sexual health as a result of detention, assault and torture. In 2019 she joined Freedom from Torture as a Health Assessment Doctor. She also has volunteered with Doctors Of The World in it’s London clinic.

Organised by graduate students from the Cambridge Migration Society and from the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement.