Refugee Children Are Self-Harming After Seeing Adults in Detention Attempt Suicide

March 31, 2017

(Quartz) – On the five Greek islands where more than 13,000 migrants and refugees have remained trapped since March 2016, a mental-health crisis is raging. The confinement and conditions in detention camps have a particularly devastating effect on the 5,000-plus children held in this limbo. Recently, aid workers noticed an increase in suicide attempts and self-harm incidents in children as young as nine. The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says suicide attempts have been rising in recent months on the islands of Lesbos and Samos.