Group helps victims of torture gain asylum, regain equilibrium

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 30, 2005 9:31 PM PDT ∞

He was held in a damp cell without a mattress, given rancid food, threatened with death and beaten unconscious. Joseph's crime: Belonging to a minority religious group. His family bribed his captors to have him released, and Joseph fled to the United States.

In San Diego, Joseph was no longer persecuted for his religious beliefs, but living conditions were harsh. He slept on a mattress on the floor with no blanket, went without food and battled depression.

An attorney working to get him asylum referred Joseph to the San Diego group Survivors of Torture, International, which found him a therapist and other professional help. He eventually earned asylum, which allows him to work, and he is on his way to making a new life in San Diego, according to his story on the group's Web site, www.NoTorture.org.

Joseph is one of about 500 torture survivors living in San Diego County who have been helped by Survivors of Torture, International, since the group was founded in 1997. Most of the survivors are in east San Diego County, but North County has its share.

"We have clients in North County and therapists in North County who see clients," said Dr. Elizabeth Michel of Encinitas, a board member of Survivors of Torture, International and a retired physician. "I personally know two psychotherapists in North County, one in Carlsbad and one in Leucadia, who are seeing clients."

Kathy Anderson, cofounder of Survivors of Torture, International, said about 4 percent of the group's clients live in San Marcos and 4 percent live in Escondido.

11,000 survivors countywide

Torture survivors have come to the United States to flee repressive regimes and cruel dictatorships in more than 40 nations. While some are willing to talk about their ordeal, many are too frightened, ashamed or traumatized. Their reluctance to come forward makes it difficult to know how many survivors live in the county, but Anderson said a conservative estimate is about 11,000.

Michel first learned of Survivors of Torture, International in 1997, shortly after she discovered that a Central American man she was teaching to read and write was a torture survivor.

"My husband and I realized he was very traumatized by the war, but it was only after a few years that he began to talk to me about specific atrocities," Michel said. "I tried to find a therapist who spoke Spanish who had some experience to work with torture survivors, but I couldn't find anybody. An immigration attorney said, 'There's this new group, why don't you give them a call?' "

Michel called Anderson, who had cofounded Survivors of Torture, International in San Diego that year. Michel's friend became the group's first client.

"She was just in the process of training people," Michel said about Anderson, who holds a bachelor's degree in international relations and a masters in counseling. With few resources in San Diego, Anderson sent Michel and her friend to Los Angeles for legal and psychological help.

Michel's friend since has earned asylum status, and the group no longer has to send clients to Los Angeles. A countywide network for counselors, physicians and attorney works with the group to help clients gain asylum and deal with lingering trauma.

A needed service

"It was pointed out to me when I moved to San Diego that there was a tremendous need for this service," Anderson said about the county, which has one of the busiest border crossings in the world and a large number of immigrants. "There was a lack of awareness that there were survivors of torture in our community."

Survivors themselves often live a type of underground existence, unwilling to talk and unable to legally work until they acquire asylum status, which can take a year.

"A lot of them are ashamed to talk about it," Anderson said. "They feel guilty or afraid, and that's not who they are. They don't identify themselves as torture victims. They might be doctors or journalists."

Michel said her friend continues to be reluctant to talk about his experience. He declined to be interviewed for this story.

"If you're in a situation where you're powerless, people feel very ashamed that they couldn't do more to protect themselves or to protect other people," she said. "He witnessed torture and the death of family members. Those kinds of experiences overwhelm the neurological system."

Growing awareness

In 1997, San Diego was one of 12 cities in the nation with a torture treatment center. Today there are 35, Anderson said.

"There's no one model yet, and we all work very closely together," Anderson said."We share information back and forth. We're not doing this work in a vacuum."

Five years ago, the San Diego center joined other cities to form the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs.

"Their needs vary," Anderson said about survivors. "A lot has to do with legal status. They're legally here, but a lot of them cannot work while they're applying for political asylum. They've fled for safety, but there's not a nearby refuge camp they can go to."

Immigrants who are classified as refugees are eligible to work legally as soon as they arrive in the United States, but torture survivors must be granted asylum before they can work, Anderson said.

The application process can take years, and Survivors of Torture, International can help asylum-seekers during that time by connecting them with social service agencies for food and clothing, interpreters and attorneys who volunteer their time. The San Diego group has an almost 100 percent success rate of gaining asylum for clients and is working on 225 more cases in the county, she said.

Helping with proof

The group also helps survivors prove they've been tortured ---- often an important step in gaining asylum ---- with psychological evaluations and medical affidavits.

"Let's say part of the torture is someone's hands are bound and they're swung from a ceiling fan," Anderson said. "There may not be physical scarring, but there could be a (shoulder) rotator cuff tear, so the physician can say this is consistent with the effects of the torture. The physician will write a report, which itself is very therapeutic, as it helps substantiate what they're (the survivors) saying."

Beating is the most common form of torture, Anderson said.

"It's very cheap," she said. "Anyone can do it. It doesn't take any training, no electricity is required, yet it's very effective."

Falanga, beating on the soles of feet, is another common torture and causes neurological damage, Anderson said. Other forms of torture cause even greater damage.

"It takes much longer to heal the psychological effects of torture than the physical scars," she said. "For a whole list of reasons, many of the torture survivors don't talk about it, and it ends up getting processed at nighttime. The No. 1 complaint we hear is sleep deprivation ... from nightmares and night sweats that many of our clients experience."

Funding

Survivors of Torture, International's budget is $750,000, with more than 90 percent going to clinical services, Anderson said.

"Our largest single source of funding is the U.S. government," she said about a four-year grant the group received from the Torture Victims Relief Act.

The 2000 grant was for $2 million over four years, ending last September. The group applied again, but its funding was cut 20 percent and it received $880,000 over two years.

"We see the handwriting on the wall, and it's just very imperative that we need to replace what was cut, but grow our support so we're not at the will of political whims in Washington, D.C.," she said.

Other grants have come from The California Endowment, a private health-care foundation, and from Grossmont Health Care District and the United Nations. Other funds come from individual donations, church contributions and an annual fund-raiser held each June 26, the International Day in Support of Torture Victims, declared by the United Nations in 1997.

Survivors of Torture, International is seeking healers, interpreters and other volunteers, including someone to work the front desk of its San Diego office. For more information on the group, visit the Web site www.NoTorture.org, call (619) 270-2400 or write to P.O. Box 151240, San Diego, CA, 92175.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.

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