22    Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned night and disturb his housemates. One night, he was in such a state that his housemates took him to the hospital. A specialist prescribed sleeping tablets for him: It helped to put those painful things down. I used to take those tablets every single night. That is the fixing of things, just to get sleep. I took those tablets for years and years. (Faheem, Palestine) Faheem still feels broken: You’re invisible. You don’t exist. They don’t care if you live or die. A person like me – over 40 – should have a family. I don’t have capacity for that. I’m broken inside. (Faheem, Palestine) Zareb (Sudan) often talks about suicide and cries at many of his appointments with caseworkers at the Glasgow Red Cross refugee support service. On one occasion, a caseworker accompanied Zareb to hospital because she was concerned about his suicidal thoughts. Zareb has told his caseworkers that he self-harms by banging his head against a wall. He suffers from nightmares and flashbacks and is a patient of the Community Mental Health Team. He has also disclosed that he was tortured and he has been referred to Freedom from Torture for support. Kasim (Iraq) is currently seeing a counsellor every week. He admits he thinks about “go some bridge or somewhere and go kill self... better than this life”. Yeah, too much I’m feeling – too much I’m tired…. I think about my life. I think about my family, what happen in Iraq…. It’s my head, my brain, too tired. Too much pain…. I’m feeling, this life, I don’t want any more this life. (Kasim, Iraq) A further seven participants reported suffering from chronic stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression. Concerns of Red Cross staff All of the Red Cross staff members interviewed expressed their worries about the mental health of refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned. One of the Glasgow staff members (Glasgow 1) reported: “Some people have experienced severe trauma and they don’t want to talk about it. They want to focus on the practical stuff.” However, when you have mental health issues, dealing with the practical stuff “is in itself traumatic”. The staff member in Leicester agreed that having mental health issues can affect a person’s ability to deal with gathering evidence or putting a claim together. The Red Cross staff member in Leicester reported: “Well, mental health problems are very widespread; I think most of our clients in one way or another have got some mental health problem.” What worries her most is the decline she sees in people’s mental health: What frustrates me, actually, is they become worse here, which is the country where they’re supposed to be finding safety. They actually get so frustrated with the system that they get really depressed. One of my clients has got psychosis now. Yes, they’ve got really bad situations. A few of them become really aggressive – and it’s understandable. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) The Red Cross staff member in Teesside also commented on the deterioration of people’s mental health. She gave the example of a client she has seen over a number of years: I’d seen how physically and mentally he’d declined. And mentally, particularly, how he’d gone downhill; how he was threatening suicide. He’d done that to me a few times, when you notice someone who’s reached that point where you think, actually, now I think he’s at the point where he would do it, because he’s got nothing else…. I mean, we all have people we’ve known who have committed suicide. (Red Cross staff member, Teesside) Staff reported various aspects they feel can negatively affect people’s mental health. One of the Glasgow staff members reported that, for vulnerable male clients, “being in a night shelter has a significant impact on their mental health” (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 2). The Glasgow Red Cross staff will try to get the person into alternative accommodation “if they seem vulnerable or have mental health problems”. The Red Cross staff member in Birmingham also worries about the mental health of refused asylum seekers sleeping in night shelters: They don’t have a place where they can stay throughout the day. The night shelter’s great, but they’re having to wander essentially the streets for 12 hours of the day, which is very difficult. And the people that they actually socialise with are people in the same situation. You can see people slightly lose sight of what they’re doing as well and what they’re wanting