Mentally ill back in chains

Trapped in iron: A man with a mental health condition shackled in a hut at Majene in West Sulawesi by his family. — AFP

LOCKED up in a tiny hut with barely enough space to lie down, Rauf is a prisoner to his mental health issues and carers whose only way of coping is to shut him away.

While not unique to Indonesia, padlocks, shackles and chains are often used to cover for a lack of mental health care in the world’s fourth most-populous nation.