There are 4 detention centers in Taiwan. The NIA, National Immigration Agency, detains foreigners at these locations who need proof of paperwork or are suspected of breaking the law. Because of the poor conditions of trafficked people in the DCs (detention center), we've started a recreational program at the Yilan DC.

Our team consists of My-Nga, the program coordinator, Hope, a master's student with social justice background from the U.S., Dave, a psychiatrist from the U.S., Cha Hung, and myself. Last week, we became aware of a Vietnamese case at one of the DCs. A woman had tried to commit suicide by biting a piece of her tongue off. She was non-communicative, so Mina, Dave and I went to the shelter she was at to offer her some assistance.

As we walked into her room, the odor of her infected mouth became obvious. She had been suffering for over a week with her oral wound untreated and used a towel to cover it. The only nutrition she had consumed for a week was milk. She was only able to vaguely mumble that taking medicine hurt. Some of her answers didn't match our questions, a typical occurrence in trauma victims. She was refusing treatment because she thought the medicine was a trick, that people were coming to kill her. After a very tender and tedious conversation, she was able to say that 5 men had tied her down and raped her in the DC. She was shaking and began to sob. My intuition told me that, clearly, something very vile must have happened to this woman.

She had been an undocumented worker in TW for over 5 years. She had no history of prior mental illness and after 1 week at the DC, she had become disoriented, dissociative, and suicidal. A week prior, NIA had tried to repatriate her to Vietnam twice, but each time, she would refuse to board the plane at immigration, since she felt that people in TW were out to kill her. She stated that if she went home to Vietnam, she'd be trafficked against her will to China where things would be worse.

It was unclear what parts of her conversation with us were accurate. There is a chance some of her thoughts were delusions, but even so, she was experiencing them as reality. Dave offered to medically treat her wound, and again she refused treatment. Our team wanted the NIA to hold off on repatriation until she was able to receive adequate medical care in TW, but instead, she was taken to the airport where this time she boarded the plane to Vietnam. My mind was reeling after that case. In this work, there are always limitations to how we are able to help. We are frequently reminded of this fact.