Asylum Fact 3

3) Refugees and Asylum Seekers are Fleeing Persecution and Torture

Asylum seekers and refugees leave their countries because they have no choice; the risks to their lives and their families’ lives are simply too great. Startling numbers of them are survivors of torture. Violent conflict plays an enormous role in causing people to become refugees. In fact, as of June 2025, UNHCR reports that 69% of the refugees in its mandate come from just five countries: Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and South Sudan. Many countries host large numbers of refugees, in many cases millions of people. Iran, Turkey, Colombia, Germany and Uganda hosted the largest numbers of refugees in 2024.

There are many other reasons that people are forcibly displaced as well, including repressive regimes that use torture and persecution in an attempt to control populations. CVT’s clients often tell us that they did not want to leave their homes, yet they felt they had no choice in order to survive.

Many people flee with only the possessions they can carry and then have to travel through more than one country to get to a safer location. These circumstances make them vulnerable to a host of dangers, including human trafficking, sexual assault, hunger and many more.

CVT’s clients – and survivors who receive rehabilitative care at other torture rehabilitation programs – whether they are refugees or asylum-seekers, have survived torture, persecution and/or conflict-related atrocities in locations around the world. They speak of what it was like to make the excruciating decision to flee from home, like the Hadad family and Jon*, who knew they would be killed if they remained in their war-torn countries. Others experienced the murder or disappearance of a close family member at the hands of government perpetrators or were persecuted by private individuals operating with impunity in countries where police or the courts could not or would not prevent or punish those responsible. Still others were targeted because of their profession, such as journalists like Youssef, or medical professionals like Manal. Some, like Rosa, had been kidnapped amid violent attacks by outlaw groups or militias and held in captivity—they fled from their abductors, having no home to return to. According to CVT clinicians in St. Paul, Maria fled Central America because her family was forced to pay a war tax to a local gang. Since her family could not afford to do so, the gang repeatedly beat her husband and eventually threatened to take her oldest son. The family fled to avoid losing their son to the gang.

Startling numbers of asylum seekers and refugees are survivors of torture. Per CVT’s own research study, as many as 44 percent of refugees living in the U.S. are survivors. Other studies indicate a similar torture prevalence rate among forced migrants in high income countries. From over 30 years working closely with torture survivors, CVT understands the dire conditions that cause people to run from their homes, their loved ones, their professions and their communities. Many clients tell us that as agonizing as that decision was, the will to live – and to protect any loved ones they could – prevailed.

Clients carry with them the trauma from all they survived before fleeing. Regardless of the country responsible for the torture, the effects of torture are similar, chronic and predictable:

Long-term physical effects include the scars and musculoskeletal pains that result from beatings, being bound or confined to cages, as well as from being hung or suspended. Feet are a common target for torturers, resulting in pain from beatings on the soles, and injuries and abuse to the head result in hearing loss, dental pain and visual problems. Torture wreaks havoc across the body, resulting in chronic abdominal pains, cardiovascular/respiratory problems, sexual difficulties and neurological damage.

Long-term psychological effects include intense and incessant nightmares or insomnia, severe anxiety, and difficulty concentrating for even short amounts of time. Suicidal ideation is not uncommon. Many survivors meet the full criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder.

Without rehabilitative care, these symptoms remain a difficult, painful, and often-debilitating part of survivors’ lives.