Youth Services: Refugees & Asylum seekers

Refugee children and asylum seekers are often leaving their home to resettle elsewhere due to situations of conflict, war or discrimination in their home country.

“Many refugee children and families flee their country when war or violence breaks out. This means that they have often been exposed to that violence prior to leaving. Some experiences that refugees may encounter before fleeing their own country include:

• Violence directed at themselves, their families and others around them.
• Witnessing killings, rapes and other physical assaults. This is often inflicted on members of their families and neighbours.
• Living in a state of fear prior to leaving their country.
• An arduous and dangerous journey to leave the country. This may involve leaving behind family members that can not make the journey or losing family members along the way due to death, violence or separation because of chaos.”

(Early Trauma Grief 2020)

There is also trauma that children face from displacement from their home country and this can be trauma from the direct situation in the home country, their journey here and the resettlement process that their family undertakes. The resettlement process can often be hard on families especially if they don’t speak the main language and have to learn a new language, there may be issues with financial hardship if they don’t have access to their finances, difficulties in accessing jobs and supports services and feelings of loss and isolation.

Trauma manifests in many different ways and the families of refugee children and asylum seekers may not realise their child’s behaviour is trauma induced. These behaviours can include separation anxiety, attachment issues with forming bonds with others, delayed development or developmental issues and tantrums and crying for example. This behaviour may not be displayed by children and may show up later in childhood or adolescence, some behaviour can include anxiety, nightmares, depression, schooling difficulties and isolation for example.

Reference:

See the below for reference: