The University of Bristol Law School Human Rights Implementation Centre was welcomed Sile Reynolds from Freedom from Torture to discuss the charity’s powerful new report, A Place to Heal (October 2025). Bristol PhD researcher Sofia Omari also offered reflections on how the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) could be used to scrutinise places where refugees and asylum seekers are housed.
The event, “A Place to Heal: A Roadmap for Safe and Dignified Housing for Survivors of Torture,” brought together students, researchers and advocates to confront difficult but urgent questions: what does dignity look like for someone who has survived torture? And how can we ensure that survivors of torture have a place where they can truly begin to heal? Freedom from Torture’s report explores the impact of sub-standard, unsafe and degrading asylum accommodation on the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees, and calls for reforms to ensure the dignified treatment of this vulnerable group of people.
Drawing on the report’s findings, the discussion highlighted how unsuitable, unsafe and degrading asylum accommodation can quietly compound trauma rather than support recovery. Housing, speakers stressed, must be more than a roof overhead. For survivors of torture, it must mean safety, privacy, autonomy, community and access to healthcare — not as privileges, but as the basic foundations for healing.
The panel also examined how increased use of OPCAT monitoring could help prevent further harm in asylum settings. Sophia Omari emphasised the importance of ensuring that asylum accommodation is effectively monitored to prevent torture through the proper implementation of the OPCAT monitoring mechanism for asylum detention.
The evening fostered thoughtful and moving reflections on justice, dignity, and the urgent need for more humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in an increasingly challenging national context.