Security over Health: The Effect of Security Policies on Migrant Mental Health in the UK

Abstract

This chapter explores how the clash between security and health concerns has manifested through two case studies in the UK and considers the impact of security policies on the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees. The first case study is among asylum seekers in detention, while the second focuses on the asylum process and struggles for housing, employment, and access to healthcare experienced by forced migrants in their everyday lives. Using the UK as a pertinent example, this chapter highlights the mechanisms by which mental health problems among forced migrants are created and exacerbated by policies intended to prioritise security concerns, both worsening the mental health status for these persons and further impeding access to necessary mental health services. Ironically, this prioritisation of security issues seems to have provided neither health benefits nor benefits to security. The system is thus in need of major reform, using an intersectoral approach enshrined in the right to health.