Kathi Anderson, executive director and co-founder of Survivors of Torture International, joined students in a discussion about her nonprofit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of torture victims on April 29.
Survivors of Torture was started in 1997 as a nonprofit organization based in San Diego. The group works with immigrants and asylum seekers who have experienced torture.
Anderson explained to the class why torture survivors end up in San Diego. "They don't have any resource at home. They cannot go to the police, government and say protect me. They are the torturers," Anderson said.
According to Anderson, San Diego has become a major destination for torture survivors because the city is a major port of entry into the United States. The San Ysidro border crossing is the busiest in the world.
Her organization exists because torture survivors are often too ashamed, afraid and sometimes too guilty to seek help. "Torture victims are the most invisible and marginalized group," Anderson said.
Anderson compared public attitude towards torture victims tp the attitude towards victims of rape. In both cases, the victim is often blamed.
Survivors of Torture works with health care professionals in San Diego County to educate and train them to deal with victims of torture. Many times medical professionals misdiagnose torture victims as psychotic due to flashbacks and language barriers.
Doctors and nurses have drugged torture victims and placed them in psychiatric hospitals where they do not receive the needed treatment.
Anderson says her organization educates medical professioals so they can identify and care for victims of torture.
Legal assistance and medical evaluations needed for asylum seekers are also provided. Court cases often take up to several years. During that time Survivors of Torture provides the victims with essential services because under U.S. law asylum seekers are not allowed to work before being granted asylum.
Later in the discussion, Anderson took offence with the growing privatization of detention facilities in the United States. Many asylum seekers are detained while undergoing their court case. Currently, there are six government-run detention facilities in the United States.
Private corporations run the rest, Anderson said. One such facility is located in Otay Mesa. Corrections Corporation of America runs the detention center. CCA is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CXW.
Asylum seekers make up 20 percent of the detainees at the CCA-run Otay Mesa facility, said Anderson. The United Nations Refugee Agency recently visited the facility and lambasted it for poor care.
The CCA-run facility is a maximum security style prison with detainees kept in their cells for 23 out of 24 hours in the day. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued federal immigration officials based on poor medical care at the Otay Mesa facility, according to KPBS.
For asylum seekers, these poor conditions seem like a return to their previous countries. Anderson's organization distributes notes to the detainees with phrases such as "we're thinking of you" and "you are not forgotten," Anderson said.
Concerning the current need for work, Anderson says they are not laying people off due to the recession, but are instead opening a second office in Sacramento.
"The more work we do, the more we find must be done," Anderson said.
