Olivia, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been detained at the Dilley Immigration processing centre in Texas for more than four months. She has lost 20lb and wakes up every day with a headache. “Another day passes, another night comes,” she told the Guardian. “And sometimes I feel that this nightmare is not going to end.”
Olivia was apprehended with her mother and two younger siblings in November. Initially separated, they were later reunited at Dilley before being separated again when the rest of the family was released. Olivia remains detained among about 225 single adult women. She struggles to sleep, crying at night and experiencing nightmares about her brother Manuel, who drowned during their journey.
Her family fled political persecution in the DRC, passed through South America, and arrived in the US in December 2022. They lived in Maine while awaiting an asylum decision, which was denied. They then attempted to seek asylum in Canada but were detained at the northern border. Olivia’s mother and siblings were sent to Dilley, but because she is an adult, she was moved between detention centres, wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles that left scars.
At one facility in New York, which she calls “the fridge”, her coat was confiscated, leaving her freezing. Now at Dilley, she still sleeps with a coat on. A mental health evaluation found symptoms of PTSD and major depressive disorder. Her days consist of waking at 6am for breakfast, then sleeping until midday, often plagued by headaches and an inability to access an optometrist for her expired contact lens prescription.
