Too stressed to tell the truth?

Asylum seekers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) are more likely to give inconsistent evidence during interviews and appeal cases, new research suggests.

The study tested two groups of refugees and asylum seekers with PTS on the consistency of their evidence given during a succession of interviews.

Dr Jane Herlihy

The Centre of Law and Emotion director, Dr Jane Herlihy, argues that PTS sufferers experience confusion about the chronology of events, avoid discussing sexual abuses and may not disclose traumatic experiences early on and thus, may jeopardise the credibility of their case.

"If judges were given PTS detection training, it would be a non-partisan approach based on empirical evidence. It isn't saying there would be more or fewer decisions, only better ones," she said.

 

 

Listen to the results here:

 

'TPS is a creeping diagnosis'

Jeremy Varcoe

Retired Immigration judge Jeremy Varcoe admits that PTS training would be beneficial but is dubious of how easily the disorder is put forward as a defence.

"PTS was rare fifteen years ago but today it is a creeping or growing diagnosis.

"Where it is clear from the rest of the evidence that the asylum seeker has been subjected to extreme stress and often torture, then almost certainly that person is going to succeed in his claim for asylum anyway, regardless of whether or not they are suffering from PTS," he said.