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Detained Torture Survivor Legal Support Network
WIth funding from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement , LIRS is coordinating a nationwide network of legal service hubs for the most vulnerable torture survivors—those held in immigration detention.
The goals of the Detained Torture Survivor Legal Support Network are to reach torture survivors lost and isolated in the detention system, to ensure that survivors receive legal representation to fight for release and status, to ensure that they get as much additional help as possible given the limitations imposed by the system, and to advocate for systemic improvements. The network has hub sites in locations with a high concentration of torture survivors and where federal money can be leveraged by building on the existing nonprofit service infrastructure. The five sites are in New York; Miami; York, Pa.; New Orleans; and Florence, Ariz. |
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Several partners are involved in this effort. Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) Inc. helps to coordinate the project and is an active local partner. Other partners at the various sites include the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights project, Catholic Charities, the Pennsylvania Immigrant Resource Center, the American Friends Service Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. We also work closely with Physicians for Human Rights and Doctors of the World, and members of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs (NCTTP), to identify and train pro bono health care professionals to assist with case assessments and referrals, and with American Immigration Lawyers Association to identify and train pro bono attorneys.
The hubs resemble war-zone field hospitals, making a life-or-death difference by establishing a refuge of professional care in a hostile environment. Services are limited by the environment to emergency, life-saving care. The network aims to take away the environmental threat and overcome the service limitations by removing the survivor as soon as possible from the traumatic environment and into one with the vital services needed not merely to survive but to build a stable and fruitful life.
Of the 200,000 immigrants detained annually by the United States, an estimated 12,000 may be survivors of torture. This includes an estimated 10,000 detained asylum seekers and 2,000 detained Southeast Asian refugees who have final orders of deportation but are barred from returning by their home countries. The Department of Homeland Security uses prisons to house these survivors. It puts 40 percent in its own facilities and 60 percent in 800 jails nationwide. Detained survivors have no legal status, no access to outside psychological services and limited access to legal assistance. They often suffer further trauma from being detained and may face further torture and death if deported.
In an effort to improve the conditions and treatment of torture survivors held in immigration detention we have begun a program to educate staff at detention centers and others nationwide about the circumstances and needs of torture survivors, and of services available to help them. You can learn more about those needs and services view "Overview of Legal, Health and Mental Health Issues: Immigrants, Refugees and Survivors of Torture" (PowerPoint | PDF), a presentation by Denise Michultka, Ph.D., of the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture.
For more information read our FAQs About Torture Survivors in Immigration Detention or contact LIRS at survivor@lirs.org.
Partner Organizations
(Links provided
to agencies with websites.)
Detained Torture Survivor Legal Support Network Member Organizations
American Friends Service Committee
Catholic Charities Community Services, Archdiocese of Miami
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New Orleans
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New York
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Newark (N.J.)
Catholic Legal Immigration Network
Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights
Project
Florida Immigration Advocacy Center
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Pennsylvania Immigration Resource
Center
National Consortium of Torture Treatment
Centers
ACCESS
Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center
Advocates for Survivors of Torture and
Trauma
Amigos de los Sobrevivientes
Bellevue/NYU Program for
Survivors of Torture
Boston Center for Refugee
Health and Human Rights
Catholic Social Services of Central and Northern Arizona
Center for Justice and Accountability
Center for Prevention and Resolution of Violence
Center for Survivors of Torture
Center for Survivors
of Torture
Center for Victims of Torture
Cross Culteral Counseling Center, International
Institute of New Jersey
Doctors of the World
F.I.R.S.T. Project, Inc.
Florida Center for Surivors of Torture,
Gulf Coast Community Care
Harvard Program in Refugee
Trauma
Institute for the Study of Psychosocial Trauma
International Survivors
Center
Jewish Family Services of Columbus
Khmer Health Advocates
Liberty
Center for Survivors of Torture
Marjorie Kovler Center
for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture
Minnesota Advocates for Human
Rights
National Consortium of Torture Treatment
Centers
Program for Survivors of Torture
& Severe Trauma (PSTT)
Program for Torture
Victims
Refuge
Rocky Mountain Survivor Center
Safe Horizon/Solace
Survivors International of
Northern California
Survivors of Torture International
Torture Treatment Center of Oregon
The Detained Torture Survivor Network is supported
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement, under contract
#90 ZT 0019.
Page last modified January 24, 2008.
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