Refugee women
[2] But even if women don't become victims of such actions, they often face abuse and disregard for their specific needs and experiences, which leads to complex consequences including demoralization, stigmatization, and mental and physical health decay.
The leading causes of death to refugee women include malnutrition, diarrhea, respiratory infections, and reproductive complications.
[4] Health concerns of refugee women are influenced by a variety of factors including their physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
[6][7][8] International humanitarian aid organizations, such as the United Nations, agree that adequate reproductive care must be "safe, effective...[and] affordable.
[4] Refugee women who have left humanitarian aid camps and have moved permanently to countries of asylum and resettlement also face reproductive health challenges.
[1] In their native countries, women who have fled as refugees may have been psychosocially or physically abused for a variety of reasons, including genocide; an attempted shaming of a family, community, or culture; or for being seen as " politically dangerous.
[9]" These forms of abuse often lead to exile or fleeing, and have the propensity to cause distress and detrimental harm to the mental health and wellbeing of refugee women.
[11] In countries of asylum and resettlement, complications with mental health also prevail due to language and cultural barriers, the post traumatic stress of fleeing persecution in their home countries, difficulty seeking mental health treatment, and an increased likelihood of facing abuse as compared to host-country nationals.
[10] In response to fleeing their home countries, refugee and asylum-seeking women develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Furthermore, these results provide substantial evidence that without intervention, recently relocated refugees could potentially experience declines in mental health over time while resettling in their host country.
[18] Issues of malnutrition persist in countries of asylum and resettlement for refugee women though mechanisms of food insecurity and lack of nutritional education.
[2] Women in refugee camps are often the primary sources of physical labor for water collection and filtration, as well as small gardening and agricultural tasks and food preparation.
[23] Some of the major barriers that girls face in areas like Syria and Lebanon include a high risk of SGBV (sexual and gender-based-violence), financial insecurity, discrimination in curriculum and professional positions, and opportunity costs of avoiding domestic responsibilities.
Investing in education helps with economic and labor force growth, lessens the rate of child marriage and domestic violence, empowers women, and gives them agency.
[8] According to a 2000 study, women are particularly vulnerable to rape and other forms of sexual assault in times of war and "disintegration of social structures" for a variety of reasons.
[21] These reasons include social unrest, the mingling of diverse cultures and values, prevalent power dynamics, and the vulnerability of women seeking refuge.
A study conducted on female trauma survivors focused on mental health amongst asylum seekers found that amongst all types of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), 62% of the sample experienced some form of emotional abuse.
In a study focused on the association between emotional abuse and awareness, researchers found survivors often develop cognitive strategies to cope with their environments.
To add, survivors of emotional abuse may develop denial and dissociation habits to keep distressing thoughts from awareness and ultimately protect themselves.
Behavioral risk factors include drug and alcohol use, verbal and non-verbal attitudes, being alone on the streets at night, lack of self-defense skills, and not knowing how to speak the language of the host country.
[31] Women made vulnerable due to their refugee status have reported border personnel tasked with overseeing their health and safety as perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
[31] In response, institutions tasked with addressing SGBV such as the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), have formally integrated gender sensitivity training to meet international and EU standards.
However, research on the issue conducted in 2016 by Jane Freedman amongst key actors such as refugees, Frontex (European Border and Coastguard officials), the UNCHR and human rights organizations have highlighted that the integration of gender specific anti-violence training has yielded poor results.
[31] Consequently, refugees entering the EU had voiced concerns of inaccessibility to basic shelter and services in camps with high population densities as a fundamental barrier to ensuring safety from SGBV.
Misogyny is a pervasive element to under-reporting due to ostracization of being sexually assaulted both in their own culture and communities, it may be deemed as “shameful” to report.
Some families of refugee women might have placed the onus on the male “heads of households” holding their legal documents thus making them inaccessible.
without other non-governmental organizations, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council or other domestic law services available to them are not able to gain access to or seek legal counsel.
