Most pop culture depictions of Europe are about this supposed socialist paradise where everyone pays exorbitant taxes, works a couple of hours a day and still manages to have free healthcare. However, there is also another Europe, one we do not hear much about in English speaking news and it is the Europe that asylum seekers, mostly people from Africa and the Middle East encounter. A continent not of welfare and high living standards, but one of barbed wire detention centers.

Doctors without Borders released a report this week, From North Africa to Italy: Seeking Refuge, Finding Suffering. In the introduction, the reasons for the sudden influx of refugees:

Since last December, when popular uprisings and violent confrontations began to shake the Arab world, some 27,000 refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants have fled by sea from North Africa to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. Most of the boats that made the journey originated in Tunisia, but increasing numbers are coming from Libya. On April 19, 760 people landed in Lampedusa in one of the largest single landings the island has ever seen.

And the conditions they encounter upon arrival:

The conditions awaiting these refugees and migrants on Lampedusa generally fail to meet the minimum standards for the reception of vulnerable persons, leading to additional suffering and uncertainty. The reception centers themselves are substandard. There is inadequate separation between men and women. There is a lack of access to information about the rights of migrants and refugees and a lack of care tailored to the most vulnerable groups, including victims of torture and violence, unaccompanied minors, and women.[…] Migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees fall into distinct legal categories with different rights. Many of those who left Libya or Tunisia in recent months have special needs for assistance and safety. These include particularly vulnerable persons, such as children, unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the disabled, and victims of torture and violence, including sexual violence. However, they are all funneled into the same inadequate system and facilities when they arrive in Italy.

According to Italian law and the European Union’s directive for the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, women and children should be housed in areas where their safety is ensured. Women traveling alone at the reception centers told the researchers from Doctors without Borders that there was not such a thing as separation from men and they lived in constant fear for their safety. Women said they were too afraid to sleep, change clothes or even go to the toilet alone.

Some testimonies from refugee detainees collected by Doctors without Borders:

Tunisian woman, 67, Lampedusa, Italy, April 2011: “Yesterday night, a man followed me to the toilets. I pushed him, I ran away, and I screamed. Men jump over the wall and enter in our room. We are afraid at night; we cannot sleep. The police do not do anything.” Tunisian woman, 35, Lampedusa, Italy, April 2011: “I don’t have a husband anymore; I have nobody to protect me. We left because we were not safe anymore, and here it is not better. Since we arrived in this center, we never relax, we are afraid of the men entering in our room. We do not change our clothes. We do not dare to undress because men are outside looking at us at the windows.”

Doctors without Borders conducted an initial mental health assessment of the new arrivals, which pointed to the risk of widespread depression and hopelessness in response to their uncertain future. The Italian government has so far, not provided any legal resources or information about their situation or future options. The refugees do not have a clear idea about legal procedures and they now face anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder as a result.

An Eritrean woman detained at the center in Mineo told the researchers:

This place is not good. Here we are seven women, all from Eritrea. Yesterday a man came at 3am. He entered in the other girls’ room. He started to speak in Arabic. They screamed, so he left. They were so afraid that they came to our room and slept on the floor. We did not sleep, we waited and listened. We are afraid. I went to the police this morning to complain but they told me to come back, they are too busy. Men are drinking outside. There is no security here.

Unable to leave the center, unable to plan a future or seek other options, these women are left with little recourse except from sleepless nights and permanent fear for their basic well being.