In the wake of the 2015-16 European migrant and refugee crisis, mental health has emerged as a critical issue—not only for the well-being of asylum seekers who may have experienced trauma, but for the outcomes of their protection claims and the integrity of the processing system itself.

Many of these asylum seekers suffer from conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), having lived through traumatic events before they set off on their journey, along the way, or both. Human Rights Watch described the mental-health situation among protection seekers in Greece as a “silent crisis” threatening the entire asylum system.

Although asylum law in the European Union recognizes the importance of providing mental-health care, in practice individual Member States—overwhelmed by processing large numbers of asylum seekers—have found it difficult to detect and treat these conditions.

Not only do mental-health disorders take a toll on well-being, but they may also influence the ability of asylum seekers to present their claims in a coherent way. The credibility assessment is a fundamental aspect of the asylum process, in which protection seekers are required to prove the existence of a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to their country of origin, based on any of the grounds prescribed by law.

For the asylum officer, who needs as much personal background information as possible in a short amount of time, the effects of dissociative symptoms triggered by mental-health disorders—such as memory loss, inability to feel emotions, or misrepresentation of certain events or situations—may create significant difficulties in assessing the credibility of the claim.

Read the full article on the mental health needs of asylum seekers at the Migration Policy Institute.