Abstract
Introduction: Experiencing traumatic events and torture due to war, the migratory process, and staying in confinement centers exposes refugees to a high risk of suffering psychological problems. Thevulnerability of experiencing posttraumatic symptomatology is mediated not only by the traumaticexperiences but also by the contextual and migratory factors at the time of assessment. The presentstudy aimed to determine the quantity and intensity of posttraumatic symptoms in a sample of refugee women blocked at the Idomeni refugee camp (Greece) under eviction. Moreover, some qualitative data were gathered throughout the interviews. Method: The methodological approach was amixed method where 23 Syrian and Kurdish women, aged 28.9 years (SD = 12.6), were interviewedthrough the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) in its Iraqi version. Results: The women experienced between 7-32 traumatic events (M = 19.47, SD = 6.68) and 4-16 torture events (M = 9.78, SD= 3.35). Re-experiencing was the most reported symptom (95.6%). A 78.26% showed posttraumaticsymptoms that exceeded the cut-off point for diagnosis the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)with the HTQ criteria and 91.30% with the DSM-IV criteria. On the other hand, qualitative dataemphasized the importance of the fact that arriving and living in the camp in Idomeni severely shookthe women´s beliefs. Conclusion: Despite the low correlation found between traumatic and tortureevents and the posttraumatic symptoms due to the ceiling effects of the results, women reportedtraumatic and torture events associated with war and the migratory process. The high scores couldbe explained by the stress associated with torture events, the eviction of the refugee camp, and thefrustration of their expectations regarding their reception in Europe as refugees. The notion of torturing environments emerges as a plausible framework to study the link between mental health and European forced migration routes.