UPDATE 1-Hundreds of thousands of people shackled for mental health issues globally, Human Rights Watch says

(Adds Indonesia comment)
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 shackle people against their will - often believing
their condition is because they are bewitched, possessed or have
sinned - and 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, the
report documents almost 800 interviews describing how people
with psychosocial disabilities in countries like China,
Indonesia, Nigeria and Mexico can live shackled for years -
chained to trees, locked in cages or 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.
China's foreign ministry and Mexico's health ministry did
not respond to emails seeking comment. Nigeria's health ministry
spokesman said ministers had not seen the report and declined to
comment.
Indonesia's government banned shackling of people with
mental health conditions in 2019 and charges those who do it,
said Harry Hikmat, a senior official at the Social Affairs
Ministry.
In Nigeria last year, authorities' raids on Islamic
rehabilitation centres made global headlines after boys and men
told of chains, beatings and sexual abuse. In state and private centres and traditional and religious
institutions globally, handlers deny people food, force
medications on them, and mete out physical and sexual violence,
Human Rights Watch said.
These services can be "very profitable businesses," Sharma
said.
The watchdog said families often shackle loved ones out of
fear they will escape and harm themselves or others.
"I stay in a small room with seven men," a Kenyan man named
Paul told Human Rights Watch.
"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," he said. "I've been chained for five years."