Denmark’s leading political newspaper Politiken reports, on January 6th, 2007, that 11 local priests at Hillerød Kommune, together with a couple of hundred supporters, are protesting against Danish asylum rules that would force hundreds of Iraqi Christians to go back to their own war-torn country. Danish People's Party's chairman, Pia Kjærsgaard, has earlier dismissed every thought about rescuing Iraqi asylum-seekers:
"I think it’s only fair, face to face with all parties
concerned now, to prove that 583 turned-away Iraqis,
under no circumstances, get permission to stay in Denmark.
Law is law, and law is to be held. Therefore they are to be
sent home", writes Pia Kjærsgaard.
(Prasz and Dahlager, 2007)
Those Iraqis have been staying in the Sandholm Refugee Camp near Hillerød. The situation described here tells the tense political atmosphere around the facility. Today, I am going to visit the Sandholm Refugee Camp. Last Sunday, I have attended a church, International Church of Copenhagen, one of the few English-speaking services close to the Deaconess Foundation. I had found the church’s website and knew the pastor there has been shuttling the Iraqi Christians to his church on some Sunday afternoons from the Sandholm camp. After the service, I waited for a while for the pastor to greet his congregants and introduced myself. He is an American Lutheran pastor from Carolina. His own website tells that he has visited Sandholm with his children. I told him about my Community clinical rotation in Denmark and mentioned that I would visit Sandholm soon. He was glad to find out that UVa Nursing School has sent a student to see Sandholm all the way from the States. I got more excited.
Last night again, I fell a sleep after 2, worrying about not being able to wake up on time for the metro and train trip to Sandholm. I barely wake up in the morning just to wash and brush. It takes about one and half hour with some room to get to the train station Allerød. I am taking the bike to ride to the metro and realize that I forget the mobile phone. In case Ms. S calls me at the train station, I would need it. I leave the bike in the elevator to get the phone and when I return, the elevator would not come back. I go down to the basement and wait. No elevator. After wasting good 20 minutes, I leave the bike there and run to the metro. At the Allerød train station at 9:04, Ms. S was waiting for me. I did not have to go back to get my mobile phone. I am the only male who has gotten out there, she says.
Google Earth version of the Sandholm Camp. The closed camp is the right half with the soccer field.
She is a good-looking middle-aged lady who drives a new Toyota. There is a kind of toughness in her weathered face. She works at the close camp portion of the Sandholm Refugee Camp. She started to work here in 1994 then took years off to take care of her children, and came back two years ago. She first applied to work here because of her interest in the refugees and previous experience in counseling. The open camp is right next to the closed camp. Actually they are at one site and used to be one Army barracks. Now, the close camp is run by the Justice Department, the open camp the Red Cross, and tall fences divide the two with barbed wire on the top. No one is allowed to the close camp without pre-approval and appointment. I am probably the first American nursing student visiting the closed camp. Not even one Danish nursing student has visited here to protect the inmates’ identity. Yes, they are called inmates. They are probable political refugees seeking asylum in Denmark but until proven, they are inmates. When their cases on review show some hope and they are about to go out to society, the inmates in the closed camp are moved to the open camp. Until then all inmates in the closed camp are treated the same as prisoners in the Danish prison system, except they are not criminals and have a bit more freedom to move about. They are not allowed to leave the closed camp. Refugees in the open camp are free to leave the camp and come back. All the IDs and documents are not shared between the two camps. They are separate organizations. Many inmates are sent back to their countries from the closed camp. When the clinic at the open camp needs the nursing charts from the closed camp, Ms. S hand-carries them to the open camp. It used to be a walking trip. Now, she drives around the fence. I asked her about the Iraqi refugees mentioned the above. She did not know about them. They might be in the open camp because nobody is allowed to go anywhere from the closed camp.
After driving about 10 minutes, we pass the open camp first. Most buildings are one-story simple structures. She drives to the corner of the complex and turns right twice. Then, I see an enormous gate as I have seen in the movie Jurassic Park. There is a camera looking at us. It opens itself. Then there is a pathway leading to another gate. Tall fences block both sides of the pathway. At the second gate, there is an interphone to talk to. Ms. S waves at the camera and the gate opens. Once inside the main building, she opens a key box and replaces her key bundle with the camp’s key bundle. Also, she takes a wireless walkie-talkie and an emergency beeper. I get a beeper myself. It is in case of emergency attack by inmates. She says it has never happened and do not push the red button. I carefully drop it in my trouser pocket. There are tall well-built guards and staff. I am introduced to each of them. Ms. S leads me into the observation room. One wall is filled with more than two-dozen monitors. The guard, sitting in front of the computer, says, “When you move, we can see.” The cameras used to monitor up to 150 inmates and now there are about 50 in the closed camp including women, who stay in the separate building. Nursing staff used to be three total but now there are two who take care of the whole camp inmates. Another nurse is on vacation now so Ms. S is responsible for all of them today. Ms. S picks up a bundle of medicine boxes from the main office and leads me to her clinic. A general practitioner is assigned to the closed camp. He visits the camp two or three times a week. He was here last night to check one inmate and ordered an endoscopy lab to see his stomach for ulcer. Every Monday, inmates go out to a hospital that is connected to the Copenhagen Prison for non-emergency labs, X-ray, and emergency dental visits. Others go to local hospitals depending on which body system they have troubles with. When hunger strikes among inmates happened, they were left as they were and not moved to the hospital. Unless they are mentally sick, it is their choice not to eat, Ms. S says. There is no force-feeding in the policy and they quickly eat again after they demonstrate their anger and frustration. This is totally different type of nursing care.
The clinic looks similar to any doctor’s clinic. The door is locked behind me as I enter the room. She says all doors in the camp are kept locked all the time. The clinic has a desk with a couple of chairs for inmates to sit in the front. There is a computer with a screen saver that says “Kriminalforsorgen Sandholmlejren”, literally meaning Sandholm camp for Criminal-welfare, but it stands for Danish Prison and Probation Service at Sandholm Camp. There is a bed on the side. Inmates sign up if they have medical problems or want to see the nursing staff. Ms. S says one of the main routines for her is to listen to inmates. There is also a social worker who helps inmates and listens to their problems. Priests come in for service once a week and for personal talks. Psych consult is provided since post-traumatic stress disorder is expected if the inmates truly have endured torture and suffering. For a new inmate, a simple exam is given to check past medical history, vaccination records, and chief complaints. Preventive tetanus shots are usually given to the incoming asylum seekers. There are brochures called “Guidelines for asylum seekers held in detention” in Danish, English, Turkish, Somali, Servian, Russian, Arabian, etc. It summarizes the camp rules and detainees’ rights. In the closed camp, inmates can work in a workshop to earn money. This is the same as the other Danish prison system. There is no work available in the open camp. Every Wednesday they get allowance for their work and they line up to buy sodas, cigarettes, etc. in the camp mini shop. There are exercise room, laundry room, and library for inmates. Also there is a school with teachers for Danish, social education, and sport. House rules, disciplinary measures, and grievances are explained as practical information. Ms. S says that there is a solitary confinement (“rubber room”) with beds that cannot harm inmates. Sometimes some inmates choose solitary confinement by themselves. Whether they are extremely depressed or just want to avoid the crowd in the camp, is not sure. Ms. S has lead me to one such guy during the day but he seemed to be calm and with his self. When an inmate is confined there as a disciplinary measure by hurting themselves, he or she is checked every 15 minutes for safety. The room has a window with metal pipes and looks scary. If inmates hurt others, they go to police and real prison.
Nurses at Sandholm check and fill medication prescription in the small pill boxes every week. There are about 15 inmates who get regular meds. There are many medication drawers and it is sometimes difficult to find particular drugs. The pill boxes are placed in the main guard office and inmates cannot keep them. They should ask the guards every time they have to take the meds. Ms. S takes me to male inmates’ cells for a tour. There is one guy she has to find. He came in yesterday and needs a diabetic medicine today. His bag with meds and blood sugar measuring tools is in possession with the guards. The building has six wings and each wing holds about 10 inmates. One wing is not used currently. There is a locked prison door to each wing. Inside the wing, inmates are free to roam around between cells to talk to their friends, play ping pong in an exercise room, and go out to inner courtyard to smoke. There are graffiti everywhere on the wall in the wing’s hallway, accusing “Danish racists”. Cells themselves are about college dorm sizes with two beds in some rooms. Most cells are quite messy. Ms. S says there are cleaning tools available but they rarely clean up their rooms. One room per each wing though is usually kept neat and clean. Inmates swap their cells. It seems like there is an invisible rule how they occupy certain cells. For truly traumatized asylum seekers, the condition in the wing does not look peaceful at all. Hallway is narrow and cells are dirty. I would not be able to stay there more than an afternoon. Ms. S checks the sign up sheets. A few people have signed up. She puts a new form there with today’s date. She wants to have the nursing session in the clinic most of the time to give the inmates some time-out away from the cells. They diabetic guy is not in his room. She checks other rooms and finally finds him. He is escorted back to her clinic. She checks his blood sugar and it is 132. Not too bad. He gets a diabetic medicine. While she looks for the med, he talks to me how he ended up here. He is from India and requested asylum in Norway. He was arrested in Denmark with his wife and kids. He is brought here while his wife and kids stay outside. They are to be transferred to Norwegian authority soon. Ms. S says some asylum seekers want to shop the country they want to live in and they move around among European countries. But the rule is that they have to seek asylum in the first European country they land from their own country. Sometimes inmates are brought back to Germany where they have initially requested asylum.
Ms. S takes me this time to women’s facility. There are 10 of them currently in a separate building. Children are not allowed to be in the Sandholm closed camp. I meet two guards in the guard office, one female another male. The male guard makes coffee for Ms. S and me. He looks very nice and kind. They start small talks. He was on vacation recently scuba-diving in a South Asian island. Ms. S and I go in to the women’s quarter after the locked prison door. It is more spacious and clean than men’s quarter. There is an open space with a table. Out in the courtyard, a few pieces of laundry are hung on lines to dry. Someone wrote words on the bulletin board: “There is a hope and there is life outside. Do not lose hope. Trust in the Lord.” Ms. S checks in two female inmates. One has bladder problem and another has urine sample to check UTI. One lady locked herself in so Ms. S has to unlock the door. The lady was just slow to answer the knock on the door. She is from Uganda. She looks neat and is soft-spoken. Ms. S greets some other ladies and we get out from the quarter. Many inmates have psychiatric problems. I do not know the statistics how many inmates have post-traumatic stress disorder. But anybody would say that for those who have been traumatized, a forced confinement itself is part of the problems for these inmates.
Ms. S has to take a medical/nursing chart to the Red Cross open camp so I have chance to see the open camp. There is no guard at the gate. The gate office has a female worker in plain clothes and she greets her. She says I am a nursing student from Virginia. It takes a while to find the building that has the clinic because they are painting the buildings and the building numbers have been taken off. My schedule to visit the open camp tomorrow is cancelled because the clinic staff is on vacation. People are free to walk around the campus and I see many people, Middle Eastern, Africans, even Chinese. Ms. S greets several young Chinese people who pass by. Their faces shine up when they see Ms. S. The nurses in Sandholm closed camp is in unique situation in that they are the ones who decide if inmates would need further assessment or treatment. They are probably the closest person to inmates and know them individually. I could see the emotional toll they would experience when things happen. I asked Ms. S during lunch if she saw any blood shed. She says that one inmate cut his wrist and was brought to the Copenhagen prison hospital. He survived. I asked again if she had any stress from her work. She says she gets tough after a while.
After lunch, she showed me the soccer field, indoor gym with basketball court, and other rooms that used to be used when the inmates numbered more than 150. Now they are closed and locked, even Ms. S could not open them. She goes another round to the male quarter to talk to some inmates. One guy has asked her a couple of times to see him quickly. She sees him in his cell and introduces me to him. He complains of his tendency to get upset and he says he does not know when he would act out his anger. Ms. S tells him to back off from any stimulant and try to calm himself. He asks for psychiatrist consultation and she agrees that she would find the time for appointment. Later, she says that he used to take anti-depressants and now he asks for higher dose in his relaxant. She says that Benzodiazepines are used cautiously because inmates become addicted to it. We also go back to the women’s quarter to tell one lady that her urine dip stick result is negative for UTI. Another lady from Uganda says she has just been notified that she would go back to Uganda tomorrow.
Regardless of their past, the life of Sandholm’s inmates is tough. Previous medical problems that they bring with them including PTSD, problems that confinement itself causes, and hopelessness from their undefined future, all influence their mental and somatic condition. Danes complain that the inmates, when they get out to Danish society, receive more benefits than other Danes and still do not work as much as they do. Cultural integration of foreigners is one of the most sensitive issues in Denmark today. It is the Danish society that will decide the future of asylum seekers. Until then the nursing care in the Sandholm closed camp is the most crucial service they can have as inmates for their survival. I returned to my temporary home at the Deaconess Foundation in the late afternoon with heavy heart. I realize that today’s experience will be with me for a long time.
