As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20th, we are proud to announce the release of a pioneering report, in collaboration with the Polish Migration Forum Foundation, titled "Everyone Around is Suffering." This groundbreaking study exposes the severe lack of psychological support available to individuals, including children, in Poland’s guarded centres for foreigners (SOCs), and examines the devastating consequences on detainees' wellbeing.

World Refugee Day is indeed a time to honour the courage and resilience of refugees and migrants and to raise awareness about their needs, plights, and about the discriminations and violations they suffer too often. Our report sheds light on a critical issue affecting refugees in Poland and underscores the urgent need for systemic changes to protect their mental health and well-being.

The study recounts the challenges and experiences faced by individuals and families in the SOCs. The testimonies from parents depict the lasting and often irreversible damage that detention is leaving on their children, including:

- Eating and Sleeping Disorders: Resulting in weight loss and the prescription of sleeping medication for children as young as three years old.

- Developmental Delays and Regressions: Anxiety leading to increased dependence on parents or bravado and fearlessness.

- Anxiety Habits: Manifesting as nail biting, hair pulling, motor tics, teeth grinding, and self-harm.

- Challenges in managing emotions: Children becoming agitated, chaotic, impulsive, struggling to interact with others, focus, and even rest due to a constant state of alarm

“Freedom restriction, even under relatively good conditions, leads to a sense of suspension and the belief that the world is threatening and unjust.” said Olga Jabłońska, Advocacy and Comms Director at Save the Children Poland. “Children are deprived of contact with peers, family, and community, all essential for their proper development. Additionally, they must cope with the trauma of their parents if they are detained together, or suffer from the lack of contact with a close adult if they are alone. In such conditions, they cannot feel safe. The lack of free play, movement, unlimited contact with nature, and appropriate education further negatively impacts their mental health.”

Today’s event featured a panel of distinguished experts who discussed these critical issues. The panel included representants from the Border Guard, Col. Iwona Przybyłowicz and Capt. Małgorzata Proszek, fprm the Polish Parliament, Franciszek Sterczewski, from the Association for Legal Intervention, Kornelia Trubiłowicz, and from the Polish Migration Forum, Agnieszka Kosowicz and Marta Piegat-Kaczmarczyk.

Their insights and discussions underscored the urgent need for concrete and practical steps to address the mental health crisis in SOCs, and for the prioritization of child-friendly and rights-based alternatives over detention.

Sharing her experience with working as a psychologist for refugee and migrant children, Marta Piegat-Kaczmarczyk , from the Polish Migration Forum explained that: “Mental health support, including opportunities for children to play and interact with social workers, being able to play football or watch fun and cute videos, as well as having mental health professionals talking to them or simply calling them by their first name, helps children in detention centers feel that - despite all the difficulties – there are people who care for them, and that there’s a perspective for a better life.”

We wish to thank the Child Rights Ombudsperson for entrusting us with the honorary patronage for this study and event, and we invite everyone to join us in advocating for a system that respects and upholds the dignity and rights of every person, especially the most vulnerable.

Together, we can make a difference.

Read the full report here: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/H3eOqRN/