He says that dozens of asylum seekers have their applications turned down and are deported back to their country of origin, in contravention of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Nearly 60 percent of all asylum seekers in Finland have some kind of torture trauma. Physical and sexual torture are the most commonly understood ways in which people experience torture, but the effects of psychological torture can be even more serious.

The centre’s director, Pekka Tuomola, says that psychological torture can involve watching relatives killed or raped, and that those cases are often ignored. Around 200 torture survivors are referred to the centre, which is run by the Helsinki Deaconess Institute, each year.

Death sentence

“We can make a well-grounded assessment of whether somebody has been tortured or not, and we write that in medical statements,” says Tuomola. “According to the UN convention, torture victims should not be returned to the country where they were tortured. The problem is that the Immigration Service does not always believe us, or consider our statements.”

Tuomola estimates that Finland deports dozens of torture victims each year when their asylum applications fail. Sometimes the decision comes after the asylum seeker has started treatment in Finland.

“This is a really awful experience when you find out that a person is going to be returned to the same situation in which they were tortured. In effect, it’s a death sentence.”