Dispelling the Myths - Freedom from Torture

Torture:
Dispelling
the
Myths
Annual Review 2006-2007
www.torturecare.org.uk
0 MEDICAL foundation
The Real Face of
Torture
Simon Carruth, the MF’s Chief
Executive Officer, dispels some of the
myths surrounding torture today.
N
ot very long ago it was safe to
assume that one of the cornerstones of any democracy
built upon hard-won liberal
principles was the rejection of torture.
It still took place, but was a matter of
shame that when discovered, was generally
greeted with outrage. Victims could usually
expect sympathy and compassion, and
perpetrators to be held to account, if not
legally, then certainly by public opinion.
There have always been fictional
depictions of the infliction of deliberate
pain, but it is several centuries since
torture was presented as public
entertainment. Since 9/11,however, and
the subsequent climate of fear, our moral
compass has gone awry. Put simply, torture
has lost its stigma.
The rendition of people seized in the “war
on terror” to countries known to use torture
routinely has taken place through at least
one UK airport without so much as a nod to
our obligations under international law.
“No torture” understandings have been
reached by the UK with governments
known to disregard human rights, allowing
for the return of terror suspects against
whom there is insufficient evidence to
mount prosecutions here.
The intelligence service of the world’s
only superpower has publicly listed its
interrogation methods of choice, ignoring
the fact that such techniques have already
been condemned as torture by the UN.
And the systematic brutalisation of
prisoners believed to be withholding
information has become everyday fare on
television and the big screen, the number of
such scenes soaring in the wake of recent
terror attacks.
Sometimes the showing of graphic torture
scenes can be justified – particularly if they
serve to illustrate the manner in which too
many governments abuse their power, and
depict torture’s destructive effects.
But more often than not the pain and the
terror are either gratuitous, or worse still,
shown as achieving results – a stance that
has led US Army interrogators in Iraq to copy
in the field what they have seen on screen.
That is why our annual review this year
focuses on the real face of torture, for
myths are being created, and lies told.
We are being lied to by the US government
which purports that it does not use torture
when clearly it does. We are being lied to
by our own Government which claims to
honour the ban on torture when in truth it is
prepared to circumvent it.
And, as John McCarthy, the MF patron
and former Beirut hostage explains in
these pages, we are being lied to by parts
of the entertainment industry softening
up public opinion by seeking to show
that torture is an acceptable form of
interrogation, that it works, and that it often
really isn’t all that bad.
“Ticking bomb” scenarios, commonplace
in fiction but exceptionally rare in reality,
are presented to justify sickening and
futile cruelty that feeds a vicious spiral of
increased violence.
It is against this backdrop that the MF
continues to strive to provide treatment and
support to those fleeing persecution who
are struggling to come to terms with the
physical and psychological wounds that are
the real face of torture.
It is an uphill struggle. Asylum applicants
still too often find their accounts of torture
disbelieved. In detention centres where new
asylum arrivals are held, some immigration
case workers seem to be engaged in a
MEDICAL foundation 0
It is becoming increasingly
clear that what we enjoy
as entertainment shapes
the world in which we live”
CEO Simon Carruth
in the MF’s file
room which holds
details of the many
thousands of torture
survivors referred
for help in the past
22 years.
macabre race against time to issue a
letter of refusal before an MF referral
can be made, preventing the detainee
from attending one of our centres.
The Home Office, despite assurances
that torture victims will only be
detained in “exceptional circumstances,”
invariably does nothing when notified by
health workers in detention centres that
such people are being held.
And a whole string of new measures
are being introduced which will make life
more difficult for child asylum seekers,
many of whom have suffered torture.
The news is not unremittingly
bad. In 2006 the Optional Protocol to
the UN Convention Against Torture
came into force, enabling experts to
make unannounced visits to places of
detention in countries that have signed
up to its provisions.
And early in 2007, nearly 60 states
signed a landmark treaty, the UN
Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance,
that prohibits governments from holding
people in secret detention, although
conspicuously neither the UK nor the US
signed up.
The MF continues to provide medical
care and consultation, psychological
treatment and support, and practical
assistance to those who need our help,
as well as the forensic documentation of
allegations of torture through medicolegal reports. This year we open a new
centre in Birmingham to complement
those already existing in London and
other parts of the country.
We will always play our part in
standing up against torture. To our
supporters, thank you for helping us
in this task. If you do not already count
yourself among that number, please
join the fight. To ignore what is taking
place before our eyes is a betrayal of the
generations to come.
John McCarthy p.12
CONTENTS
04
In review
An update on the events, issues and
activities the MF has been involved in over
the past year.
08
The services we offer
A comprehensive guide to the work of
the MF, and the services and support
we offer.
12
Glorifying pain in the
ratings war
Broadcaster, writer and former Beirut
hostage John McCarthy, an MF patron,
laments the growing acceptance of
torture as entertainment.
14
Torture: A world-wide
scourge
A snapshot of the MFs caseload, and some
of the countries our clients have fled.
16
Championing children
Protecting the rights of child torture
survivors is an essential service.
18
Giving clients a voice
The crucial role MF interpreters play in
helping our clients.
20
The power of the
written word
The MF’s Write to Life project gives
clients a chance to reach out with the
written word.
Cover by MF artist
in residence Diana
Brandenburger
based on photo
of Guantánamo
interrogation room.
22
A big thank you
Our acknowledgement of the private
individuals, major donors, trusts,
foundations, supporter groups and
celebrities who have funded our work
for the past year.
0 MEDICAL foundation
International
Training to Combat Torture
B
razil: MF doctors are providing
training to forensic medical
examiners and scene of crime
officers to combat the use of torture by
the police.
A fact-finding trip to Rio de Janeiro
and Brasilia by an MF team revealed
a number of shortcomings in the
investigation of allegations of torture,
largely because medical experts are not
independent of police.
The use of torture by state agents to
intimidate and to extract information
or confessions from suspects is widely
acknowledged, both by human rights groups
and the Brazilian government.
The MF team, whose visit was backed by
the British Council and the Brazilian Special
Secretariat of Human Rights, found that the
ability of forensic professionals to investigate
allegations of torture was hindered by the
contamination of crime scenes, removal of
evidence and intimidation of witnesses.
Training for medical doctors and forensic
scientists was also shown to be lacking.
MF staff now provide training to forensic
doctors and investigators in definitions of
torture, medical ethics and human rights,
interviewing techniques and psychological
assessment and after-effects of torture.
Kosovo: The first generation of
psychology students to do a Masters
degree at Prishtina University completed
an MF module entitled “Psychological
practice with survivors of torture and
organised violence”. Training included
classroom work, plus practice
placements in schools, clinics and social
work centres.
Key to the MF involvement was the
pledge by three government ministries
(Education, Health, Social Welfare) to
provide the 32 students with jobs on
graduation.
Britain’s
favourite newscaster
makes raffle draw
MF offers to
send doctors
GuantAnamo
The MF offered to send doctors to
Guantánamo Bay to examine detainees
following a call by the British Medical
Association (BMA) for the UK government to
seek ‘direct and unfettered access’ to those
being held.
The BMA’s demand followed a report from
the UN Committee Against Torture that
some of the interrogation techniques used
at the detention centre there are prohibited
under international law.
There are also concerns that US military
doctors have force-fed hunger striking
prisoners in contravention of World Medical
Association (WMA) declarations that such
action is unethical.
The MF offer followed a meeting of the
BMA’s annual representatives meeting
which passed a resolution condemning the
force-feeding of prisoners under the direct
supervision of US doctors, and noted ‘with
considerable concern’ the lack of publicly
visible action from the WMA over the role of
doctors at Guantánamo where three inmates
committed suicide in 2006, while dozens of
suicide attempts have been made.
The resolution urged the UK Government
to secure access to the detainees, who
include several British residents, by an
independent team of British doctors, and for
the results of their visit to be made public.
An MF spokesman said: “We would be
keen to be part of any independent medical
delegation allowed to visit Guantánamo. Our
doctors are among the most experienced in
the world in examining torture victims and
documenting their treatment and condition.
“Guantánamo is an ongoing disgrace. No
nation committed to the rule of law can
justify holding people indefinitely without
trial. It is time that independent experts
were able to verify exactly what has been
going on there.
“It is time too that the World Medical
Association forced the American medical
authorities to wake up to their responsibility
to hold members to account if they are
behaving unethically.”
Former ITN newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald
made the draw in an MF art raffle for
donated paintings that raised nearly £4,000.
More than 50 participants each paid £85 to
have their names entered.
Sir Trevor voiced his support for the
MF, saying: “I am a great fan of charities
like the Medical Foundation which support
those affected by the consequences, such as
torture, of the glibly named ‘war on terror’.
“If we want to continue to call ourselves
civilised, we must support such charities.”
The event was organised by the South
West London supporters group.
Eye on Life
In both Ethiopia and Eritrea, coffee drinking
is a ritual with deep cultural significance.
The image above, of coffee steam mingling
with smoke from burning frankincense, was
captured by a young woman documenting
her life in exile as part of an MF project.
Five young clients, assisted by two
professional photographers, were given
cameras and taught how to tell a story
in pictures.
MEDICAL foundation 0
Helping Highlight
Use of Torture
World-Wide
A
new handbook, to which MF experts
contributed, encouraging the
investigation and documentation
of state-sanctioned torture in the hope
of preventing further abuse, is being
distributed to health professionals worldwide through British embassies and
diplomatic missions.
The book‚ ‘Medical Investigation and
Documentation of Torture’ is intended to
raise awareness about the use of torture
and the wounds it leaves on its victims, both
physical and psychological.
It advises doctors and other health
workers on the most appropriate way
of examining a person who has been
tortured, and looks at the uses to which
the effective documentation of injuries can
be put, including battling impunity, helping
prosecute perpetrators, seeking redress
for survivors, and helping asylum seekers
substantiate their accounts of persecution.
The distinction between torture and
ill-treatment is explored, as are the ethical
considerations facing health professionals
dealing with victims of state torture, and
the absolute prohibition of torture under
international law is detailed. Advice is
also given on visiting places of detention,
and examining victims in the presence of
members of the security services.
The book, financed by the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, and published by the
University of Essex’s Human Rights Centre
(HRC), is written by Dr Michael Peel, a
senior examining doctor at the MF, together
with Noam Lubell, a senior researcher at
HRC and Dr Jonathan Beynon, co-ordinator
for health in detention at the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Contributors included doctors and
lawyers either employed by, or associated
with, the MF, with a forward by HRC chair
Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, an MF trustee.
Authors’
Inspiration
Some of the UK’s most distinguished
writers gave a glimpse of the work that has
inspired them at an evening of readings in
London on the MF’s behalf.
Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, bestselling author Zadie Smith, award-winning
poet Nick Laird, biographer Hermione
Lee and acclaimed short story writer
Helen Simpson took the stage at London’s
Camden Centre at the invitation of novelist
Julian Barnes, a long-standing supporter,
and patron, of the MF.
Introducing the event, Barnes noted the
regrettable continuing need for the work
of the MF in the light of increasing reports
of torture across the world, and the
efforts to normalise its practice through
extraordinary rendition.
“I remember thinking, when I first
became involved with the MF 15 years ago,
that torture was something that happened
out there in distant countries,” he said. “I
assumed torture would disappear and the
need for the MF would happily diminish.
It’s impossible to be so optimistic today.”
Each of the writers captivated the 300plus audience with extracts from their
favourite works, the only stipulation being
that they couldn’t read their own or each
other’s material. The evening raised more
than £11,000.
The MF – a charity with
50 support bands!
DJ Huw Stephens has been playing a track
a week on his Radio 1 show from an album
compiled by 50 indie artists to raise funds
for the MF.
Featuring minute-long tracks from
established musicians and unsigned acts,
the album includes exclusives from artists
such as Daniel Johnston and MC Lars.
“It seemed like a really innovative,
interesting idea and as soon as I heard it
I wanted it on the show,” says Huw, who
carries the mantle of the late John Peel in
his readiness to showcase new talent.
“Musically, it was very appealing. The
fact that it was for a charity was also very
important. The more bands who support
things like the MF the better.”
The album, entitled “50 Minutes”, was the
brainchild of music promoter Tom Madders
who spent a year with his colleagues at
Exercise 1 Records organising the project.
0 MEDICAL foundation
Stop Detaining
Torture Survivors
M
F calls for an immediate end to
the detention of asylum seekers
who have been tortured were
given new urgency by two reports from Anne
Owers, HM Inspector of Prisons, exposing
shortcomings in the way torture survivors in
custody are treated.
Her findings about Yarl’s Wood and
Harmondsworth immigration removal
centres highlight areas of concern which
the MF has sought for some time to have
rectified.
One key problem to which the MF has
consistently drawn attention is the Home
Office’s failure to take action when medical
staff in such centres, as required by
regulation, notify immigration officials that a
detainee has suffered torture. This is despite
an official assurance that torture survivors
will only be detained in “exceptional
circumstances”.
In both her reports, HM Inspector of
Prisons called on the Home Office to
introduce prompt reviews of such cases
once notified of their existence.
Clients thrive
in alternative
drama group
Lessons learnt from refugee camps in
conflict zones in Africa are being played
out in a drama group set up by the MF’s
North West centre in Manchester to help
vulnerable clients transcend the past.
The project was initiated by James
Thompson, a professor of applied theatre
who has seen the therapeutic effect of
drama while working in refugee camps in
Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
“The work we do always has an implicit
relation to the actors’ own experiences,” he
says. “Sometimes it’s absolutely fantastical,
other times it’s like having a cold shower –
they’ll come in weighed down with whatever
Healthcare provision for torture survivors
in both centres was also found wanting. At
Yarl’s Wood, services were “not geared to
meet the needs of those with serious health
care problems or the significant number of
detainees held for longer periods for whom
prolonged and uncertain detention was itself
likely to be detrimental to their well-being.”
At Harmondsworth, where in the year to
June 2006, 131 detainees said they were
torture survivors, the Owers report noted:
“Healthcare staff had still not received any
training in the management of patients
who had been tortured, although this has
been a recommendation in two previous
inspections.”
MF Refugee Policy Officer David Rhys
Jones said: “Detaining torture survivors, who
will often have already experienced prison
in their countries of origin, is contrary to
human rights standards and apt to trigger
flashbacks and nightmares. Once the Home
Office has been notified, they should be
released so they are not subject to further
suffering while their cases are appraised.”
is playing on their minds, and you’ll see
them change.
“We try to develop the stories in a
way that ensures the subjects are fully
explored. At it’s best it’s wonderfully
life changing. The social side is also
extremely important for people whose
daily lives can be very bleak.”
Immigration themes reverberate
through the work. As a measure of just
how empowering the stage can be, one
script written by the group wrung dark
humour out of a Home Office refusal
notice - the letter many asylum seekers
dread receiving saying their claim has
failed and they may be detained.
North West centre manager Jude
Boyles says: “Most of the clients are too
scared to even go to college because
their anxiety levels are so high and their
ability to trust others has been severely
impaired. Drama allows them to have
contact with other people in a safe,
respectful environment.
“It helps them remember the lives
they once had, and realise they still have
strengths and resources.”
James, together with Alison Jeffers,
who is also part of the project, is
taking part in In Place of War, a project
sponsored by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council to examine the
influence of theatre on displaced
communities.
Rock star
Skin
donates £5,000
Young torture survivors have found a new
champion as they seek to come to terms
with the persecution and terror that drove
them into exile. Rock star Skin has met with
members of the MF’s adolescent group
several times, playing her music for them,
and encouraging them to try their hand at
composing.
In December, the internationally
recognised singer, famed for her edgy
lyrics with the group Skunk Anansie and
her subsequent solo work, flew in from her
home in Spain especially to perform at the
group’s Christmas party. During her latest
tour, she also raised some £5,000 for the
MF, the only charity she actively supports,
through the sale of merchandise.
“For me it’s good not to be involved in too
many things that I can’t put a lot of personal,
physical effort into, the way I can with
this,” she explains. “There’s a lot of easy
things you can be involved in, but a charity
dedicated to helping victims of torture isn’t
one of them.
“I’ve sat in on the group several times,
playing the guitar and singing, and
formulating melodies for the lyrics the kids
come up with. It’s heartbreaking hearing
some of their stories.
“People have a lot of negative attitudes
towards asylum seekers because of stories
they read in the tabloid press. If you lose
that ability to be compassionate towards
people who are poorer or who have come
from difficult circumstances, your culture
becomes very hard and greedy.”
MEDICAL foundation 0
In Tribute
Making
Wasteland Bloom
P
lans have been drawn up for the
creation of a new healing garden at
the MF’s London centre following
the expiry of the lease on a Hampstead
house where such a garden had previously
taken root.
Members of the MF’s Natural Growth
Project (NGP) which combines horticulture
and therapy, have been busy transferring
plants and artefacts to preserve as much of
the original’s ambience as possible.
The challenge now is to create from
barren grass, on what was previously
wasteland, a garden where clients can begin
to rebuild their lives.
It will also serve as an “active memorial”
to people either killed or “disappeared”,
with certain plants and trees planted to
commemorate victims by their loved ones.
One feature will be a purpose-built centre,
to be the main base for the NGP, which
also supervises the running of a number of
allotments in London by MF clients.
NGP co-ordinator Mary Raphaely said:
“Leaving Hampstead has been a huge
wrench. The garden there provided an oasis
of peace for some of our most troubled
clients. One said simply as we left: ‘It is here
that my healing began.’ But the challenge of
creating something new is very exciting.”
Persecuted
Poet
speaks up
for the MF
Shared Earth
A group of African women clients at MF
Scotland were given a glimpse into the
distant past by a Glasgow Museum outreach
programme that encouraged them to try
their hands at making ceramic ware to
historic designs.
The museum regularly takes objects out
to show to selected groups in the community
in the hope they will be inspired by the
masters of old. The creativity involved, and
the chance to learn a new skill, can be a
major confidence boost.
Over an eight week period, a therapy group
of 11 MF clients, mostly from Uganda and
the Democratic Republic of Congo, copied
work, including a 700-year-old Persian
The Medical Foundation marks with much
sadness the deaths of three individuals
who each contributed enormously to the
services we offer.
Two of them, Dr Petra Clarke and Dr
John Rundle, both pioneers in their fields,
were examining MF doctors. The third was
a former actress who as a volunteer ran a
greatly valued MF service.
Dr Clarke, a gynaecologist and
obstetrician, and former senior medical
officer at the Department of Health, sought
to change medical and legal opinion by
arguing that politically motivated rape
was torture. As a member of the Church
of England’s General Synod, she was a
staunch campaigner for the ordination of
women.
Neurologist Dr Rundle helped shape the
nascent field of human rights medicine.
Former actress Madeline Blakeney, who
appeared on stage, and in the early days of
the TV soap EastEnders, was for a number
of years co-ordinator of the MF’s Holiday
Scheme, placing scores of clients with host
families around the UK for short breaks.
ceramic tile, and a Peruvian tile dating
back to the 1500s, as well as coming
up with their own designs. They called
the project Shared Earth, to reflect the
material in which they were working.
Museum curator Chris Jamieson said:
“A lot of discussion came out of working
with clay – about language and freedom,
and shared humanity. Some were quite
timid to start with but grew in confidence
as the course progressed.”
Seeing one of her tiles framed on the
wall, one of the participants said: “This
shows us we are not how we perceive
ourselves to be; we still have colour inside
us; we are not destroyed.”
Award-winning
poet Jack Mapanje,
a former political
prisoner in Malawi,
was guest speaker
at an MF meeting in
Newcastle marking
the opening of our
new centre in the city.
Dr Mapanje, now a
Newcastle University
lecturer in creative writing and the work of
persecuted writers, spoke about his own
imprisonment, which led to two of his best
known collections of poetry, The Chattering
Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison (1993) and
Skipping Without Ropes (1998).
He also described his reasons for
supporting the MF, saying: ”It picks up
with torture survivors where other human
rights organisations leave off, helping them
deal with the difficulties of re-entering the
world.”
Dr Mapanje was head of English at the
University of Malawi in the 1980s when his
poems, which included barely disguised
political criticism, incurred the wrath of the
late Malawian dictator, Dr Hastings Banda.
0 MEDICAL foundation
Journey
Towards Recovery
The
The services
we offer
T
he Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
is the only organisation in the UK dedicated solely to the
care and rehabilitation of people who have fled torture,
and/or organised violence. Over the past 22 years, our services
have grown to meet the needs of a constant stream of people
fleeing persecution from a multitude of countries. This year
further improvements are being made to ensure that we continue
to provide the best possible service. A new centre is opening
in the West Midlands, while around the country our training
programme for those working with torture victims is reaching
an ever increasing number of people. In addition, every person
accepted for treatment at our London centre is now to be offered a
health check by our specialist doctors. Our aim is to help a hugely
vulnerable group of people rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.
The Torturer’s Work
The torturer’s aim is to break the victim
psychologically, usually through attacking
the body to destroy mental resilience.
The objectives of the torturer are varied.
Sometimes information is sought, and often
a confession too, but torture is also used
to terrorise and intimidate other ethnic or
religious groups, or those with different
ideologies.
In many cases the victim is utterly
broken, never emerging from the prisons,
detention centres and sometimes even
private houses used by the authorities as
torture centres. Those who make it to the
MF are the fortunate ones, if such a word
can be used, for they have survived.
A myriad of techniques are used to inflict
pain, including suspension by the limbs for
prolonged periods; mock executions; mock
drownings; asphyxiation; electric shocks;
deprivation of sleep, food, water and light;
unrelenting beatings with fists, studded
belts, batons and rifle butts; and rape, a
torture inflicted on both men and women.
Torture’s Aftermath
Physical pain and psychological trauma
from torture can last months, sometimes
years, and with it will often come intense
feelings of humiliation and loss of selfrespect. Victims are haunted by memories of
what they have been forced to endure, deep
feelings of injustice, and often regret about
the lives they have been forced to abandon.
Flashbacks and nightmares are commonplace, as are profound feelings of isolation,
and an inability to trust others. And there
is grief, and often guilt, at having survived
while family and friends have perished, or
remain in prison.
Seeking Refuge
Most MF clients are asylum seekers who
have arrived in the UK by a variety of
means, some making the trip themselves,
others placing themselves, or in the case
of children, being placed, in the hands of
traffickers.
Fleeing repressive and conflict riven
countries around the globe, some MF
clients will have been targeted for their
political activities. Others will have been
falsely accused of activities against the
state. Some will have been persecuted
for speaking out against injustice, others
because of their ethnicity, or religion, or
simply because they are female.
Upon arrival in the UK they will all share
one thing in common. Having escaped
hatred and hostility, they will find that
their welcome in the UK is usually less
than sympathetic. Interviewing officials
may cast doubt on their testimony and
sometimes on their very identity. Children
arriving alone will often be accused of
being young adults lying about their age to
prolong their stay in the UK.
Asylum will frequently be refused on
questionable grounds, sparking a series
of lengthy appeals. Hanging over them
throughout will be the threat of removal to
the country they have fled.
And while their cases are decided,
they will often endure substandard
accommodation, or, in far too many cases,
detention, despite Home Office assurances
that torture victims will only be detained in
“exceptional circumstances”. Those whose
claims are refused, but are too terrified to
return to their countries of origin, will be
forced out of their accommodation, and
find their support stopped, leaving them
destitute.
In the case of those accepted for
treatment at the MF, doctors, clinicians
and case workers are on hand to help
them cope with the legacy of their past
experiences, and the fear and uncertainty of
the present.
MEDICAL foundation 0
The Healing Process
Who We Help
Referrals for casework and counselling
are made by general practitioners (GPs),
community mental health teams, refugee
community organisations, lawyers, schools
and other voluntary and statutory bodies. We
also accept referrals from family members,
and even self referrals. We see adults
who have arrived in the UK alone or with
dependants, and unaccompanied children
who have arrived with absolutely no one to
support them.
A significant proportion of clients are
referred by agencies which assist newly
arrived asylum seekers, including Migrant
Helpline, the Refugee Council and Refugee
Action. Immigration lawyers may also refer
clients for specialist medico-legal reports
(MLRs) in which a doctor, psychologist
or psychiatrist document physical and
psychological evidence.
We prioritise cases for treatment on the
basis of clinical need once we are confident
that an individual comes within the MF’s
remit. New referrals are considered in
terms of the individual’s vulnerability and
their ability to function psychologically,
and on a practical, day to day level. We
are particularly keen to help those whose
needs cannot be met by the National Health
Service (NHS), social services or other
voluntary organisations. In cases where
the trauma suffered can be treated by other
specialist services, such as rape counselling
organisations, we will refer on.
The MF’s purpose built centre in London
provides a range of clinical services as well
as practical assistance including casework.
The MF does not provide medical
treatment in the sense that it does not
prescribe drugs. Our doctors, however,
trained and experienced in dealing
with torture victims, make medical
assessments and will liaise with a client’s
GP about appropriate treatment. MF
in-house medical specialists include
GPs, psychiatrists, paediatricians, an
ENT specialist, a chest physician, a
gynaecologist, an ophthalmologist and a
pain management specialist.
Thanks to the increased support of
volunteer doctors, all new clients will now
receive a health check to identify specific
conditions associated with torture. The
MF also offers physiotherapy, massage
therapy, podiatry and reflexology.
Psychological treatment includes
counselling, group therapy, family therapy,
and psychotherapy, while for torture
victims who find it impossible to articulate
their feelings, alternatives involving art
and music are offered. There is also a
Natural Growth Project in which clients
work on an allotment, or in an MF garden,
along with clinicians, in a pioneering
combination of horticulture and therapy.
For children who have suffered or
witnessed torture, there are paediatricians
and therapists specialising in dealing with
children, adolescents and families.
The dispersal of asylum seekers
outside the South East in recent years led
to the opening of MF centres in the North
West (Manchester), North East (Newcastle)
and Scotland (Glasgow). In 2007 a new
centre in Birmingham will cover the West
Midlands, and another opens in Yorkshire
in 2008.
The principal aim of the centres outside
London is to build capacity in existing
voluntary and statutory services, including
GP surgeries, for dealing with the
specialist needs of torture survivors. More
complex cases are also handled.
The Manchester and Glasgow centres
provide counselling, and group work.
Glasgow also offers family therapy while
Newcastle provides counselling. All MF
centres will soon provide MLRs.
Central to every aspect of a client’s
care is the work of MF’s interpreters who
enable us to communicate effectively with
clients. (See story Pages 18 & 19)
10 MEDICAL foundation
Care of Practicalities
The emotional barriers that torture
survivors strive to overcome are inextricably
linked with the practical difficulties they
face. Navigating the asylum process,
obtaining the correct support, difficulties
with inappropriate housing and accessing
the education system are all common
experiences which compound feelings of
isolation and insecurity. MF caseworkers,
who are usually also counsellors, advise
on where to turn for help. We also have
a welfare officer who helps with benefit,
housing and educational matters. In
emergency cases, a relief committee can
make small cash payments to clients
who are destitute, while grants of up to
£250 can be made towards furniture and
linen for those placed in unfurnished
accommodation.
Giving Survivors a Voice
The MF has campaigned against “no
torture” deals which the UK has arrived
at with Libya, Jordan and Lebanon, and
diplomatic assurances reached with
Algeria, allowing for the return of terror
suspects to those countries against whom
there is insufficient evidence to mount a
prosecution in Britain. The MF’s view is
that there is no reason to believe such
assurances from countries where torture
is known to be routine.
We are campaigning vigorously against a
series of proposals that will make life more
difficult for unaccompanied children fleeing
persecution arriving in the UK. (See story
Pages 16 & 17)
To raise awareness, we have also put MF
clients who are strong enough to talk about
their experiences forward to the media to
describe what they endured.
Several clients have also taken part in
meetings with British diplomats attending
human rights and governance training
courses to sensitise them to the realities
of torture.
Training to Meet the Needs
of Torture Survivors
Fighting For Our Clients
The MF is nationally recognised for its
expertise in documenting evidence of
torture, with the Home Office insisting that
a senior officer is called in to endorse any
negative decision taken over an asylum
claim in which one of our medico-legal
reports (MLRs) has been submitted.
Where a client in the ‘detained fast track’
process has been referred to us by a lawyer
for an assessment, the immigration service
generally acknowledges the acceptance
by the MF of such a referral as prima
facie evidence of torture, and releases
the detainee. The asylum process is then
suspended pending the MF team preparing
an MLR.
The MF will only produce such reports
when it considers it will make a material
difference to a case in enabling decision
makers to understand the gravity of the
torture endured. Refugee status is given on
the basis of the risk of future persecution.
Showing a person has already suffered grave
abuse is a strong indicator of future risk.
The MF has won from the Home Office
the assurance that only in “exceptional
circumstances” will torture survivors
be detained because of the danger of
retraumatising them. Torture survivors are
also exempt from electronic tagging because
of the invasive nature of this practice.
The MF hopes by the end of the year to
have finalised plans for its first accredited
training course at a teaching hospital or
university in treating torture survivors. In
2007 it started training health care workers
at asylum accommodation centres in Leeds
in the early identification and assessment
of torture victims, a programme it hopes to
roll out to other similar centres in the UK.
It has also been training workers from the
Government’s Gateway programme which
resettles in the UK people from refugee
camps who have no hope of ever returning
home. In Kosovo, the MF helped train the
first generation of psychology students, who
have completed a Master’s degree course at
Prishtina University.
Making it
happen:
The MF employs 242 paid staff, comprising 71
full time and 95 part time, plus 76
interpreters. The clinical department is by far
the largest with counsellors, caseworkers,
doctors, physiotherapists, psychiatrists,
psychotherapists, psychologists, family
therapists, child therapists, group workers,
art therapists and auditors. 184 volunteers,
including doctors, psychiatrists,
psychotherapists, complementary therapists
and legal advisors are also vital to our work.
Saba Stephanos
Caseworker-Counsellor & Group
Facilitator, Acting Head of the Early
Intervention Team
Saba fled Eritrea in 1977 as the battle
between Ethiopian government forces
and the Eritrean liberation movement
reached the capital, Asmara, and civilians,
particularly the young, were targeted by
Ethiopian troops.
She joined the MF as an interpreter in
2001, then took an MSc in psychodynamic
counselling to become a caseworkercounsellor before joining the EIT.
“Counselling helps clients develop a
sense of safety and lessens the feeling of
alienation,” she says.
Gervase Vernon
Volunteer Doctor
Gervase joined the MF five years ago,
inspired by his own family’s refugee roots
– his mother fled Poland to the US shortly
before the Nazis invaded – and a period
spent working in central Africa.
“Here we have two and a half hour
interviews with clients, compared with
only ten minutes as a GP,” he says. “In
itself, it’s a traumatic experience because
you’re encouraging people to relive painful
memories. It isn’t necessarily the right
moment for them to remember things but
if they are going to get asylum in Britain
– and often they believe that their survival
depends on it – they have to remember the
most intrusive details of the ill-treatment
they have suffered.”
MEDICAL foundation 11
Funding
I
our work
n 2006, the MF’s income was £7,039,075, much of which
came from contributions from individual donors who
accounted for £4,866,983. We take no money from the
Home Office, Foreign & Commonwealth Office or any political
party to ensure that we remain completely independent and
impartial in campaigning for torture survivors’ rights.
Individual donors
£4,866,983 69.1%
Legacies
£643,102
9.1%
Trusts & foundations
£657,416
9.3%
Medico-Legal Reports
£256,084
3.6%
European Commission
£165,111 2.3%
Big Lottery
£156,010 2.2%
Department of Health
£30,000 0.4%
UN Voluntary Fund for
Victims of Torture
£91,116 1.3%
Income from training
& other sources
£173,253 2.5%
Total:
£7,039,075 100%
our
clients
T
he MF received 2,145 new referrals in 2006 to our four
centres, compared with 2,455 in 2005. This reflects a
downturn in asylum figures across the UK. While the
government claims falling asylum figures are a success, we fear
it is increasingly difficult for torture victims to reach the UK.
84% (1,812) of the new referrals were to
our London centre, followed by 9% (198) to
Manchester, 4% (78) to Glasgow and 3% (57)
to Newcastle.
The largest client group were males,
making up 56% of new referrals, followed
by women (35%) and children (9%). Most
clients were aged between 25 and 34.
New referrals came from 86 countries,
foremost among which were Iran (235), the
Democratic Republic of Congo (193), and
Eritrea (150). (See story Pages 14 & 15)
A total of 2,752 clients, existing and
new, were seen. A record number of
25,906 appointments were offered
across all four centres in 2006.
The most sought after service was
casework-counselling, followed by
group work. There was an increase
in the number of MLRs issued by the
asylum team, totalling 750 in 2006
compared with 668 in 2005.
12 MEDICAL foundation
Glorifying Pain
in the Ratings War
Writer and broadcaster John McCarthy,
who was held hostage in Lebanon for
more than five years, is horrified at the
growing role of torture as entertainment.
T
he blows were excruciating, and
the anticipation of them almost as
bad. For several weeks while held
hostage in Lebanon in the late
1980’s, I and my fellow captive Brian Keenan
were at the mercy of a guard who took a
twisted delight in inflicting pain.
Sometimes he would burst into our cell,
screaming and striking out with the butt of
his rifle. The only sensible response was to
roll up into a foetal position until his fury was
spent. At other times he would enter silently.
Stand over us – or even on us – pushing the
barrel of his gun against our temples.
It took a long time for our bodies to
recover from these batterings and for our
minds to be clear of the sickening dread the
man inspired. But in comparison with the
horrors inflicted on many MF clients, the
damage was slight.
It has been 16 years since I regained my
freedom, but I still find it difficult, if not
impossible, to witness on screen images
of the deliberate infliction of pain by one
individual on another.
In truth, such material was not something
I ever enjoyed, but after Lebanon, it triggers
in me a reflex of almost physical intensity.
I know, from talking to therapists at the
MF, that such aversion is common to those
who have actually experienced sheer mind
numbing brutality and terror.
Today, however, it is increasingly difficult
to avoid – for torture scenes have become
prized ammunition in the battle of the box
office and the television ratings war.
And with this relish for depicting the
darker side of human nature have come a
number of lies that must be countered, if
we are to continue to live in a world where
the rule of law, and respect for other human
beings, remain paramount.
It is becoming increasingly clear that what
we enjoy as entertainment shapes the world
in which we live. As the American Psychiatric
Association said recently, in calling for a
reduction in television violence: “The debate
is over. Over the last three decades, the one
overriding finding in research on the mass
media is that exposure to media portrayals
of violence increases aggressive behaviour
in children.”
There is research too showing that
the lessons learned are copied over into
adulthood, while adults exposed to violent
entertainment can become desensitised and
begin to identify with the aggressors, and
the aggressors’ solutions to problems.
The biggest lie that has gained currency
in television is that torture is an acceptable
weapon for the “good guys” to use if the
stakes are high enough. Extraordinary
times require extraordinary measures, so
the logic goes, a line of reasoning that is
particularly pernicious given the excesses
MEDICAL foundation 13
Coercion or pressure can actually
increase a source’s resistance and
determination not to comply”
that have marked the “war on terror”.
It is a lie that underpins Fox Television’s
thriller series “24” which features ruthless
agent Jack Bauer in a programme TIME
magazine recently dubbed “a weekly
rationalisation of the ‘ticking bomb’ defence
of torture”.
The “ticking bomb” scenario, in which
torture is justified if there is a limited period
in which to prise from a suspect information
to avert a catastrophe, is the argument of
choice for torture apologists everywhere.
Certainly the co-creator of “24”, Joel
Surnow, makes no bones about where he
stands in the debate, telling one interviewer
recently: “It there’s a bomb about to hit
a major US city, and you have a person
with information… if you don’t torture that
person, that would be one of the most
immoral acts you could imagine.”
Torture is never justified. It maims or kills
the individual, while eroding the moral and
legal principles on which a just society is
based, and corrupting those branches of the
state which sanction and inflict it.
The second lie that surrounds its fictional
depiction is that torture works, despite the
long held recognition - dating back to at least
the time of Aristotle - that a victim will often
say anything to stop the pain.
In the aftermath of the scandal surrounding
the treatment of prisoners held by the US
military, the National Defense Intelligence
College in Washington commissioned a series
of papers from experts about what had led
to the use of torture (and how interrogations
should be conducted].
“The scientific community has never
established that coercive interrogation
methods are an effective means of
obtaining reliable intelligence information,”
said one senior intelligence officer. Another
expert warned that research suggested
that “coercion or pressure can actually
increase a source’s resistance and
determination not to comply”.
Late last year US Army Brigadier General
Patrick Finnegan met the producers of “24”
to suggest they tone down the content. He
was concerned not just at the impact the
torture was having on the reputation of
the US, but on how it was influencing the
behaviour of troops in the field.
One former US Army interrogator has
publicly admitted that he and his colleagues
in Iraq copied behaviour and techniques
seen on TV when questioning prisoners.
The entertainment industry is also guilty
of minimising the true horrors of torture by
failing to show the very profound impact it
has on its victims’ lives.
James Bond’s ability to joke while his
genitals are beaten in Casino Royale, for
instance, makes a mockery of the pain,
humiliation, and degradation felt by the real
victims of sexual violence helped by the MF.
The point might seem academic, until it is
remembered that the Bush administration
has consistently tried to maintain that
a variety of coercive techniques used in
the “war on terror” – including sleep
deprivation, and forcing people to stand for
long periods of time in contorted positions
- don’t actually amount to torture, a stance
that flies in the face of findings by the UN
Committee Against Torture.
As a human rights organisation, the MF
defers to no one in its support for freedom
of expression. The numerous writers,
journalists and other public figures among
our clients who have fallen foul of repressive
governments would demand nothing less.
But when freedom of expression leads,
either directly or indirectly, to an incitement
to violence, a responsible society has the
right to say that there are other principles
too that it is equally important to maintain.
One cannot be at the expense of another.
14 MEDICAL foundation
Torture:
A World-Wide Scourge
T
he sheer size of the
problem often comes
as a surprise, for it’s
a practice synonymous with
the dark ages.
Surely the human race has moved on,
many would like to believe, and a world has
been built where, except in a few unhappy
instances, basic human rights
are respected.
Lofty sentiments – but unfortunately
far from true. A quick glance at the MF’s
caseload from any given year over the past
two decades tells a very different story.
There are dozens of countries where
torture remains routine; a score of
techniques are used to inflict pain, both
physical and psychological, and many,
many people fall victim - men, women
and children.
In 2006 a total of 2,145 new cases were
referred to our four treatment centres in the
UK from 86 countries.
Some came from states such as Sudan
and the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) where the appalling human rights
situation has captured the attention of the
world’s media.
Others came from countries where
abuses are known to occur, but are less well
documented such as Nepal and Egypt.
The ten countries that produced the most
referrals for help in 2006 were Iran (235)
DRC (193) Eritrea (150) Turkey (142) Somalia
(118) Afghanistan (101) Cameroon (104) Sri
Lanka (80) Sudan (80) and Iraq (74).
The picture that emerges from the
spectrum of cases is not the definitive face
of torture for the year in question. It can’t be
as it deals only with those victims who have
managed to reach the safety of the UK and
the doors of the MF.
We know from our history that we see
disproportionately few cases from countries
from where it is difficult for victims to travel
to the UK.
Nor do the cases we see offer a full
picture of torture in the countries they
have fled, for a number of prerequisites
determine who reaches us – including
mobility and at least some financial
resources. Many victims die in prison.
Others are so wracked with pain and illness
that flight into exile is impossible.
The torture survivors we are able to help
are testament to the relentless scourge of
torture in communities spanning the globe.
The map on these two pages gives a
snapshot of the prevalence of torture in a
number of countries our clients have fled.
Turkey
Referrals: 142.
Those seen were
mostly low level
Kurdish political
activists persecuted
for attending rallies
or protests seen
by the government
as support for
the illegal armed
opposition group,
PKK (Partisi Karkere
Kurdistan). Others
arrested while
celebrating Newroz,
the Kurdish New
Year; women were
arrested
at pro-equality
Sudan
Referrals: 80.
Mainly people
fleeing the Darfur
conflict. Targeted
by the governmentbacked Janjaweed
Arab militia intent
on wiping out the
local population,
farmers were forced
from their land
and imprisoned.
Adolescents forced
into slavery. Some
tortured for refusing
to fight against
their own people.
Tortures used
included beatings,
mock drownings, and
suspension.
Client: Male, aged 26,
first fled to the UK in
2001 after resisting
conscription. He
returned to Sudan
after his asylum
claim was refused.
Imprisoned on
arrival for three
years, he was
severely tortured.
demonstrations.
Tortures used
included falaka –
beatings on soles of
feet – high-pressure
water hoses, sexual
assault and electric
shocks.
Client: Female,
aged 28, joined
pro-Kurdish
party DEHAP
after persecution
because of her
ethnicity. Detained
several times,
beaten unconscious
while naked and
sexually assaulted.
MEDICAL foundation 15
Eritrea
Referrals: 150.
Generally either
members of
banned Christian
groups such as
Pentecostals and
Jehovah Witnesses,
or men and women
tortured after
refusing to do
military service.
Methods used
included beatings,
and being tied in
contorted positions
for prolonged
periods. Women
prisoners were
frequently raped.
Client: Male, aged
27. Pentecostal
Christian.
Arrested during
military service
when a prayer
meeting was
raided, beaten
with batons,
tied in contorted
position and left in
sun for hours.
Iran
Referrals: 235.
They included
Kurds from the
west, Arabs from
the south and
other Iranians, all
accused of anti
Government or unIslamic activities.
Torture methods
included beatings,
mock drownings,
prolonged solitary
confinement and
the joojeh kebab,
in which the victim
is suspended from
a pole with arms
and feet bound, and
then hit and beaten.
Client: Young Arab
male, aged 32,
from southern
city of Ahvaz,
arrested after
attending a protest
about a friend’s
execution. Solitary
confinement.
Kicked, suspended
and beaten with
hose pipes and
truncheons.
Iraq
Referrals: 74. Some
were victims of the
regime presided
over by Saddam
Hussein, others
were abducted
and tortured after
that period. At least
five were targeted
while working
recently for the
UN, or the US-led
Multinational
Forces (MNF).
Tortures used
included beatings
with electric cables,
suspension by the
arms and being
Democratic Republic of Congo
Referrals: 193. Most
were imprisoned
in the run-up to
2006 elections
as members of
parties opposed to
President Kabila.
Children saw
parents raped and
murdered. People
of Banyamulenge
ethnicity were
assumed to be
from neighbouring
Rwanda and
anti-government.
Victims were
crammed into
crowded prisons,
badly beaten, and
forced into hard
labour. Women
were raped by
soldiers in front of
their husbands, and
by prison guards.
Client: Female,
aged 35, opposition
party member,
imprisoned several
times and raped
repeatedly.
forced to witness
the execution of
other detainees.
Client: Sunni
Muslim woman,
aged 30, working
for UN in Kurdish
area, accused
of spying for the
present Iraqi
authority. Detained,
family also
threatened. She
fled after being
injured when a
suicide bomber
attacked the
building where she
worked.
Ethiopia
Referrals: 53. Most
were tortured
around the time of
the 2005 elections
because of links
with opposition
parties. Students
were arrested at
Coalition for Unity
and Democracy
(CUD) protests.
Others were
members of the
Oromo Liberation
Front (OLF). Those
of mixed Eritrean
and Ethiopian
origin were also
persecuted. Eight
women reported
rape. Other forms
of torture included
beatings, food
deprivation, and
falaka – beatings on
soles of the feet.
Client: Female,
aged 22, held after
OLF meeting at
family home was
raided. Raped
repeatedly by
guards.
16 MEDICAL foundation
Championing
Children
E
ach year several hundred children are treated at
the MF’s London centre. Survivors of torture, their
emotional turmoil is often compounded by the
suspicion with which they are treated by sceptical British
immigration officials.
Pictures: (Left) Syd
Bolton the MF’s Legal
and Policy Officer
(Children) and (Right)
Young MF clients often
feel profoundly isolated.
Common problems they experience
are pain, a profound sense of isolation,
suicidal feelings, and nightmares.
Therapies used to counter past horrors
and defuse present tensions include
counselling, psychotherapy, group work
and art and music therapies.
With many of these young people arriving
unaccompanied in the UK, a prerequisite
for the healing process is a stable, safe
environment, but all too often their accounts
of persecution are ignored, and their asylum
claims rejected.
One crucial aspect of the MF’s work,
therefore, is to provide expert legal advice
and assistance to challenge negative
asylum decisions and win such children a
measure of security.
The battle is led by children’s lawyer Syd
Bolton, the MF’s Legal and Policy Officer
(Children) who advises clinicians on how to
get young clients’ asylum cases dealt with
fairly. On a broader front, he is an asylum
adviser to the Children’s Commissioner
for England, and works with the Refugee
Children’s Consortium, a coalition promoting
the interests of young asylum seekers.
Syd’s expertise has recently placed
him centre stage in the debate over the
treatment of young asylum seekers as he
has sought to highlight the dangers of a raft
of new Government proposals that will make
life increasingly difficult for such children.
“Young asylum seekers seem to have
become the latest scapegoat in the
Government’s ‘talk tough, act tough’ stance
on immigration,” says Syd, whose MF post is
funded by the charity Comic Relief.
“The Home Office still operates
within a culture of disbelief, rejecting
93% of the refugee claims from 3,000
unaccompanied children who arrived in
MEDICAL foundation 17
Young asylum
seekers seem to
have become the
latest scapegoat in
the Government’s
‘talk tough, act
tough’ stance on
immigration...”
the UK in the course 2006.”
At the MF, Syd tries to ensure that every
child torture survivor is represented by a
child specialist immigration lawyer, with
whom, if necessary, he works closely on
mounting an effective appeal.
In some cases, he has helped to secure
the release from unlawful detention of
children who have had their age disputed.
In others, he has obtained late night
injunctions to prevent their removal.
Liaising closely with MF clinicians, Syd
also monitors the welfare provisions for
child clients and will intervene with social
services if support is found wanting.
The year 2007 started with news of
significant changes to the way child asylum
cases are to be handled. Much of what is
proposed is deeply troubling.
Some children will be at risk of return to
countries of origin (at present they can stay until
18) and bone X-rays will be used to determine
age disputes.
All children aged 12 upwards will be
interviewed in person by a Home Office case
worker within 35 days of making a refugee
claim, with a decision reached within days.
The age limit for discretionary leave to
remain will be reduced, and young asylum
seekers, at present looked after in the London
area and other major cities, are to be dispersed
into the care of councils all over the country.
The countries to which the Government
is considering returning children include
Albania, Angola, the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) and Vietnam. Syd says real
evidence will have to be produced to prove
that any child returned would receive the
level of care and support that they need.
X-rays to determine age, he adds, have a
wide margin of error and are also unethical,
demeaning and potentially harmful.
Interviewing young children within 35
days of arrival could prove psychologically
damaging, he warns, and he is concerned
at the dispersal plans. The MF’s London
centre is the only one of its kind in the UK
offering a specialist service to children, and
he is worried too at whether there will be
sufficient access to legal assistance.
The gloom, however, is not unremitting.
The MF was recently allowed to intervene
in an appeal court case involving a young
Afghan asylum seeker in which the judge
ruled that the Home Secretary had to ensure
there were adequate care and reception
arrangements in place before sending young
asylum seekers back to their country of
origin – a ruling that should go some way to
protecting future return cases.
In addition, the Government has agreed
to sign up to new EU directives which
significantly reduce the scope of its
reservations to the Children’s Convention,
which put immigration concerns ahead of a
child’s “best interests”.
The EU Qualifications Directive of 2006
made it clear that in the case of children,
“best interests” must be a primary
consideration in asylum decisions. The
European Court of Human Rights has
also agreed that the wishes and feelings
of children must be taken into account in
decisions about their lives.
Together with Article 39 of the Children’s
Convention, which says child torture
survivors have a right to “psychological
recovery” and re-integration” in an
environment of “dignity and respect”, Syd
believes that legal tools now exist to achieve
significant improvements to the protection
process for child clients. What remains to
be seen is whether the Government delivers
on its promises under international human
rights standards.
18 MEDICAL foundation
Giving Clients
a Voice
T
he party at the family orchard
in the mountains outside Kabul
was supposed to give a taste
of Afghan hospitality to a group
of European guests. Two years after the
Soviet invasion, they received instead a very
different introduction to life in a country
where an insurgency was gathering force.
Half way through the proceedings, a
group of mujahadeen arrived, overturning
tables and hurling food into the faces of the
assembled throng, before commandeering
the host’s Land Rover and forcing him to
accompany them high into the Hindu Kush.
That was the last time Gulalai Baqi saw
her father alive. Targeted because he was a
prosperous wine and cigarette merchant, he
was shot a day later when his captors, who
had intended to ransom him, realised that
he was in no shape to keep up as they made
for a mountain stronghold accessible only
on foot.
For Gulalai, then training as a teacher at
Kabul University, the murder marked the
start of a chain of events that ultimately
forced her to flee to the West, where she now
puts her considerable language skills to use
in London as an MF interpreter. .
Today she is one of 76 interpreters that
the MF can call on who between them offer
more than 50 different languages - in her
case Dari, a form of Persian that is spoken in
Afghanistan, as well as Farsi and Pashtoo.
With the killing of her father, and the
torture a year later of a politically active
MEDICAL foundation 19
Pictures (Main) MF interpreter Gulalai Baqi
today. (Above) Gulalai (second from right)
at a family wedding in Kabul in the 1970’s.
(Right) Gualalai’s father, Said Abdul Baqi,
who was murdered.
Apart from good language skills,
interpreters must also be committed
to the people we are trying to help...”
older brother, Gulalai has first hand
experience of the terrors and impact of
political violence.
She understands the desperate measures
that people are sometimes forced to take
to flee - slipping out of her home country in
disguise to Saudi Arabia, and escaping from
there on a passport bearing a stamp she
carved into a potato, then inked into place
with dye extracted from her clothes.
Gulalai knows too how terrifying it can be
to get caught up in a country’s bureaucracy
without the language skills to cope. When
she applied for asylum in a small French
town, her landlady became convinced that a
nervous facial rash was a contagious disease.
Without the aid of an interpreter, Gulalai
was suddenly bundled off to hospital by men
wearing boiler suits and masks, pleading
all the while in a language no one could
understand for someone to collect her
daughter from school. The hours until she
knew that the child was being properly cared
for were a nightmare.“I remember just how
alone, and how panic stricken I was,” she says.
During her first six months at the MF, she
cried every day. “It was seeing the pain of the
clients. Each story went into my blood, but
I could not walk away. I have been through
a lot, but some of those we help have been
through so much more.”
Many, but not all of the MF’s interpreters,
have similar stories of persecution and
personal anguish, making them ideal for
this work, according to the MF’s interpreting
services manager, Clarisa Carvalho.
“Apart from good language and interpreting
skills, interpreters must also be committed
to the people we are trying to help,” she says.
“Sometimes that can be even more important
than a language certificate. They have to
sympathise with the work.
“Many of the interpreters have fled the
same wars and the same oppressive regimes
as our clients, so they have a very real
understanding of what people have been
through, and the difficulties of starting again
in a strange country.
“The more an MF interpreter can furnish
the clinician about the background, as to why
the client might be saying what he or she is
saying, the better.
“That doesn’t mean they will interfere with
the clinician’s work, or voice opinions about
whether a client is genuine or not. They are
there to facilitate communication, but in
a unique way. They have to help engender
a spirit of trust between all three people
in the room, the client, the clinician and
themselves, if the client is to feel able to talk
freely about the torture suffered.”
In 2006 more than 9,500 MF sessions took
place with interpreters. As well as the major
languages offered, Farsi (Iran), Turkish,
Amharic (Ethiopia and Eritrea), French,
Lingala (Democratic Republic of Congo)
and Arabic, there were many lesser-known
languages too such as Beriya (Sudan), Yazioli
(Russia) and Fula (West Africa).
Interpreters are offered sessions with
a psychotherapist if they have difficulty
dealing with the material to which they are
exposed. There are also monthly group
sessions with a psychologist, and family
therapists, to discuss issues that arise.
Using the skills of some interpreters, the
MF has now offered other health workers
training in working with interpreters to help
torture survivors. A group of MF interpreters
are also drawing up a glossary of commonly
used clinical terms to be translated into
various languages.
In addition, a code of practice for both
clinicians and interpreters has been written,
establishing the boundaries both should
observe during a session. The book, Code
of Practice and Ethics for Interpreters and
Practitioners in Joint Work is available at
www.torturecare.org.uk - the MF’s website.
20 MEDICAL foundation
Pictures (Main) Write
to Life member
Nadine. (Right)
Project co-ordinator
Sheila Hayman.
The Power of the
Written
Word
S
even years ago Nadine was lying
blindfolded on the floor of a dark
room with her hands bound,
paralysed with fear. She had been
seized by soldiers in Kinshasa, capital of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and
accused of being a spy.
Her family had fled Rwanda many years
earlier and successfully forged new lives
- or so they thought. However, following the
assassination in 2001 of President Laurent
Kabila by soldiers believed to have been
backed by Rwanda, to be Rwandan was to
be suspect.
Nadine’s father, a local politician who had
protested for years against the corruption of
the earlier regime of Mobutu Sese Seko and
then that of Kabila, had been shot dead in
front of her and her younger siblings.
Forced into hiding, the family began to
starve as neighbours were too scared to be
seen helping the “enemy”. As the eldest, it
was up to Nadine to venture out in search of
food when the meagre supplies ran out.
It was on one such expedition that the
soldiers spotted her, “arresting” her and
taking her to an abandoned building where
they brutally assaulted her. Just when she
thought only death could spare her from
the pain, she was taken out and dumped
in the street.
Ultimately forced to abandon her family,
she eventually made her way to the UK,
where the MF started treating her.
Last year, in a remarkable turn of events,
Nadine, now 27, was invited to address
a crowd of hundreds at Edinburgh’s
International Book Festival. As a member of
the MF’s literary project “Write to Life”, she
was one of several clients given the chance
to tell their stories by reading their work.
“I don’t think I would have found myself
in writing if I didn’t have this experience,”
says Nadine, who is now training to become
a human rights lawyer. “My very desire to
write was created by the suffering inside.
Before, I could not even speak about what
happened. Writing has been like therapy
- the first time I had to read some of my
work it made my heart race, but afterwards,
I felt so much more open. I don’t believe you
can change your destiny but you can make
the most of what you have and turn a bad
experience into a positive.”
“Write to Life” was started ten years ago
by playwright Sonja Linden as a means
of helping torture survivors remove the
shackles of their past by writing. Now run
by screenwriter and novelist Sheila Hayman,
the project has become increasingly prolific.
With the help of seven distinguished
writers acting as mentors for individual
MEDICAL foundation 21
I don’t believe you can change your
destiny but you can make the most
of what you have and turn a bad
experience into a positive”
clients, memories that could otherwise
terrify and weaken have been turned into
intensely moving poems, short stories and
pieces of autobiographical journalism that
bear witness to a horrific past but also to the
therapeutic power of the written word.
The group, comprising 20 clients, all
referred by counsellors who recognise that
for some writing can heal like no other form
of therapy, has gone on to publish three
collections of work. Some of the writers
were well established in their homeland;
others took up writing to unburden their
innermost thoughts as torture survivors.
“Writing is something that almost anybody
can do, however desperate their situation,”
says Sheila. “All it takes is a pen and paper
and enough peace to be able to let the words
come out. By creating coherence out of an
incoherent life, writing helps to envision and
make real a better future.”
In 2006, the group helped launch Lots of
Big Ideas, the UK’s first Internet blogging site
for asylum seekers. The writers have since
been invited to several more poetry festivals,
and talks are underway to make a book of
their short stories available in a chain of high
street coffee shops.
My Hands, by Nadine
Whenever I had done something naughty,
My mother used to shout, asking:
‘Have you lost your head?’
‘No, Mother’.
One day when I came to England, I felt
terrible.
In this new country, with a foreign
language,
There was nothing for me to do anymore
This time, it was my hands I had lost.
Much as everybody talks about
opportunities
None of them seems to be for me
I couldn’t cook my food anymore
Nor have a house to clean.
These hands, although they look like my
dad’s hands,
They were no use to me now
22 MEDICAL foundation
The Search
for Funding
MF acting head of fundraising
Jim Tomlinson explains the
process of obtaining a grant.
Central to our recent work has been the
opening of new centres in the UK to train
health professionals in other agencies, while
handling the more complex cases that arise
ourselves. Money for this programme has
been generated from a variety of sources.
One of the most important funders has been
the European Commission, with the grant
providing a text book example of how charities
today have to “earn” the money they are given,
and justify how it is spent.
When the MF asked for funds, it was
concerned that outside London there was a
shortage of people who felt skilled enough
to help the torture victims among asylum
seekers being dispersed from the South East.
We knew that we had the skills and
expertise to help, but after opening a new
centre in Manchester, we didn’t have the money
to do more.
When it became clear that EC was interested
in funding the kind of work we wanted to
pioneer, we set about building our case,
proposing new centres for Glasgow, Newcastle
and Birmingham.
As grant makers become ever more
knowledgeable about the rehabilitation of
torture survivors, the reporting requirements
become ever greater. Like other voluntary
organisations, the MF has improved how it
presents information, evaluates its services,
and demonstrates strategic thinking.
Monitoring and evaluation systems were then
developed showing the work’s effectiveness, with
independent auditors confirming the information.
The result is a transparent system in which
we quite rightly account for every pound. In the
process, new information is amassed about
torture survivors’ needs – enabling us to plan
further for their welfare.
Local
Groups
Major donors, L
trusts and foundations
The MF is indebted for funding this
year to: the DG Charitable Trust, the
Portobello Fund, the Mirianog Trust
(which has paid for a new building for
our Newcastle centre), the Richard
Rogers Charitable Settlement,
Newby Trust Ltd, the Tolkien Trust,
the Avenal Trust, Beatrice Laing
Trust, the Rufford Maurice Laing
Foundation, the Allan & Nesta
Ferguson Charitable Settlement, the
Three Oaks Trust, the Jack Petchey
Foundation, Comic Relief, BBC
Children In Need, the Mrs Smith and
Mount Trust, John Lyon’s Charity,
the Leathersellers, Company Charity
Fund, the Man Group plc Charitable
Trust, the Samuel Sebba Charitable
Trust, the Northern Rock Foundation,
New Philanthropy Capital, the Ajahma
Charitable Trust, the New North
London Synagogue, the Audrey and
Stanley Burton Charitable Trust, the
Richard and Betty Lawes Foundation,
Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity,
the John Ellerman Foundation, the
European Commission, the United
Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims
of Torture, the Big Lottery,
Volunteering for England and the
Department of Health.
MF supporters on a sponsored cycle
ride in Cuba. Left to right: Geoff and
Helen Hall and Ronald Pile.
Individual
Efforts
Grateful thanks to all our supporters
who helped raise funds on an individual
basis whether by hosting a party, joining
an activity, picking up a collection tin, or
choosing to send MF Christmas cards.
One extremely welcome trend has
been the growing number of people who
instead of receiving gifts to mark a special
occasion, ask their friends instead to make
an MF donation. With requests for our
Special Day packs outlining the options
available at an all time high, in 2006 this
ocal groups held a wide range
of events, raising both the MF’s
profile and much-needed funds.
• The Reading group secured a slot at the
WOMAD festival for the singer/songwriter
Billy Bragg to talk about human rights
abuses.
• The Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells
group compiled “Cook, Eat, Enjoy” a book
of mouth watering recipes from around
the world, including Kent!
• A conkers tournament was held by the
Bedford and Milton Keynes group.
• The Edinburgh group organised a free
will making scheme in conjunction with
Drummond Miller solicitors.
• The North East England and Bristol
groups held charity screenings of Blind
Flight, the story of Beirut hostages John
method of giving raised a record £18,000.
Supporters also kept the MF in mind at
Christmas. There was an overwhelming
response in 2006 to our card selection, with
the MF’s new online shop making purchasing
even easier.
Sponsored events were a great success
again this year. One supporter, Anne Wiggins,
raised £3,500 cycling from London to Paris,
while another, Alison Home, raised £1,500
walking across northern Spain.
Religious groups and congregations were
particularly generous this year, helping raise
more than £35,000.
MEDICAL foundation 23
McCarthy and Brian Keenan (both now MF
patrons). In Newcastle producer/director
John Furse took part in a Q&A afterwards.
Musical evenings were a favourite way for
local groups to combine fundraising with
having a good time.
• Hope Valley and Sheffield group’s “Jazz
in the Field” attracted an audience of more
than 700.
• The Dunav Balkan Group performed
music from Eastern Europe and Turkey in
Cambridge.
• An orchestra made up of staff from
Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital held a sell
out concert in the city.
• Charity Night@The Jam House organised
by the Heart of England group brought a
mixture of flamenco, soul, folk fusion and
funk to Birmingham.
Celebrity
Support
High profile figures to whom the MF is
indebted for supporting its work in a
variety of ways over the past year, ranging
from headlining gala evenings, to donating
royalties from their best selling books,
have included:
Kate Adie, Julian Barnes, Alan Bennett,
Jeremy Bowen, Billy Bragg, Jo Brand, Rory
Bremner, Richard Briers, Simon Callow,
Mavis Cheek, Tom Conti, Brian Cox, Louis
de Bernières, Lynn Farliegh, Michael
Frayn, David Gilmour, Ian Hislop, Glenys
Two art raffles were held. At one,
in Richmond, Surrey, organised by
the South West London group, former
ITN newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald
made the draw while novelist Louis de
Bernières was master of ceremonies
at another held by the Suffolk group.
Literary events were big news
too. South West London group’s “A
Word in Your Ear”, featuring Michael
Frayn, Kate Adie, Nigel Williams.
Mavis Cheek and Lee Langley
was Time Out’s literary event of
the week, while it was standing
room only when the North East
England group hosted an evening
in Newcastle with award winning
Malawi poet Jack Mapanje, a
torture survivor.
Kinnock MEP, Stephen Kovacevich,
Nick Laird, Lee Langley, Hermione
Lee, Maureen Lipman, Roger Lloyd
Pack, Sir Trevor McDonald, John
McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Shazia Mirza,
Adrian Mitchell, Andrew Motion,
Michael Palin, Jeremy Paxman,
Harold Pinter, Philip Pullman, Lynne
Reid Banks, Alexei Sayle, Prunella
Scales, Valerie Singleton, Skin, Zadie
Smith, Ralph Steadman, Richard
Stilgoe, Janet Suzman, Sam West,
Billie Whitelaw, Nigel Williams, Kara
Wilson, and John Woodvine.
“Jazz in the Field” festival at Edale
in Derbyshire
Events
Tom Conti evening, Hampstead: March 12
We were thrilled that Tom Conti and his
wife Kara Wilson once again opened the
doors of their delightful north London
home for an MF fundraising evening.
Guests enjoyed recitals by classical
pianist Stephen Kovacevich and tenor
Mark Padmore.
Film Preview: Shooting Dogs at Tricycle
Cinema, Kilburn: March 19
North London screening on behalf of
MF of Shooting Dogs, a film about the
Rwandan genocide, starring John Hurt and
Hugh Dancy. A Q&A with producer David
Belton followed.
Supporters Reception, Sugar Quay, City
of London: June 28
Guest of honour, MEP Glenys Kinnock, an
MF patron, criticised Government plans to
return terror suspects to countries known
to use torture routinely. Dr Nimisha Patel,
the MF’s Head of Clinical Psychology, and
Head of Audit and Evaluation, spoke about
her work. Venue thanks to the generosity of
Mann Group plc.
Festive Fundraising Dinner, Royal
Society, London: Dec 8
Held to mark International Human Rights
Day, guests donated more than £14,000.
Outspoken comedian Shazia Mirza spoke
about the dangers of exercising freedom of
speech. MF Trustee Gill Gorrell Barnes and
MF Head of Press Andrew Hogg also spoke.
With all the darkness in the world, the Medical Foundation
does enormous good. The nature of torture is hard to
dwell on - that aspect of the human condition that causes people
to do such things. It’s distressing, but at least by supporting the
Medical Foundation you can try to counteract it.”
Alexei Sayle – Comic, actor and author
The Medical Foundation performs a sadly necessary and
absolutely vital function caring for victims of torture,
speaking up for them, and alerting us all to its hideous reality.
The work of the Foundation deserves the most widespread and
unstinting support.”
Andrew Motion – Poet Laureate
It is a sad world that needs a place like the Medical
Foundation. Despite the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the UN Convention Against Torture, the practice
continues worldwide. The Medical Foundation reaches out to
the victims giving essential help. For those of us lucky enough
not to have suffered torture, it also provides a platform where we
can unite and protest that this is not how human beings should
behave towards each other.”
Sandi Toksvig – Comedian, author and radio presenter
Annual Review 2006-2007
www.torturecare.org.uk
Writers: Andrew Hogg and Aliya Frostick
Design: Aspect Media
Photographs: Aliya Frostick, Andrew Hogg,
Global Security, Kate Lloyd, Anna McCarthy,
BBC, Brett Hambling, Bishop + Sauve.
Patrons: Julian Barnes, Sir Louis BlomCooper KT QC, Julie Christie, Phil Collins
LVO, Tom Conti, Clare Francis MBE, Sir
Raymond Hoffenberg KBE FRCP, Nick
Hornby, Brian Keenan CBE, Baroness
Helena Kennedy QC, Glenys Kinnock MEP,
Professor Bernard Knight MD MRCP
FRCPath DMJ Barrister, Hanif Kureishi,
John le Carré, Eric Lomax, John McCarthy
CBE, Dame Helen Mirren DBE, Michael Palin
CBE, Lord Palumbo, Harold Pinter CBE, Sir
Simon Rattle CBE, Claire Rayner OBE, Ruth
Rendell CBE, Fiona Shaw CBE, Sir Sigmund
Sternberg KCSG JP, Juliet Stevenson CBE,
Sir Tom Stoppard CBE FRSL, Helen Suzman
DBE, Patrick Trevor-Roper MD FRCS DOMS,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Marina Warner
FRSL, Billie Whitelaw CBE.
Trustees: Rex Bloomstein (Chair), Elizabeth
Gordon MS FRCS (Vice Chair), Simon
Erskine MA FCA MACIE (Treasurer), Gill
Gorrell Barnes MA MSc CQSW UKCP, Haji
Jassim, Frank Margison MBChB, MRCPsych
(from Dec 2006), Professor Sir Nigel Rodley
KBE, Samir Shah OBE (until Dec 2006),
David Walburn MA, Alison Wetherfield.
Registered Charity No. 1000340.
Company limited by guarantee.
Registered in England No. 2398586.
111 Isledon Road,
London N7 7JW
Tel. 0207 697 7777
Fax 0207 697 7799
www.torturecare.org.uk