Hundreds of thousands of people shackled for mental health issues globally, Human Rights Watch says

By Paul Carsten and Angela Ukomadu
ABUJA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children with mental health conditions are living chained up
in roughly 60 countries, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Without mental health support or awareness, families or
institutions often shackle people against their will, leaving
them eating, sleeping, urinating and defecating in one small
space, the rights watchdog said in a report.
In the run-up to World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Human
Rights Watch's report documents through almost 800 interviews
how people with psychosocial disabilities in countries like
China, Nigeria and Mexico can live shackled for years - chained
to trees, locked in cages, imprisoned in animal sheds.
"We have found the practice of shackling across religions,
social strata, economic classes, cultures and ethnic groups -
it's a practice that is found around the world," said Kriti
Sharma, senior disability rights researcher at Human Rights
Watch, in an interview.
The belief in many countries "is that people with mental
health conditions are bewitched, or possessed or have sinned,
and as a result, they have a condition," she said.
China's foreign ministry and Mexico's health ministry did
not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A Nigerian
health ministry spokesman said the ministry had not seen the
report and declined to comment.
Last year, Nigerian authorities' raids on Islamic
rehabilitation centres for drugs and behavioural issues made
global headlines after boys and men told of being shackled, kept
naked, beaten and sexually abused. But around the world, in state-run and private centres and
traditional and religious healing institutions, handlers deny
people food, force medications and herbal remedies on them, and
mete out physical and sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said.
In many countries, these services are "very profitable
businesses," Sharma said.
The watchdog said families often shackle their loved ones
out of fear they will escape and harm themselves or others.
"I've been chained for five years," a Kenyan man named Paul
told Human Rights Watch, whose chains were so heavy he could
barely move, according to the group.
"I stay in a small room with seven men," he said. "I'm not
allowed to wear clothes, only underwear. I eat porridge in the
morning and if I'm lucky, I find bread at night."