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Minnesota News
Mark Zdechlik
Updated:

Center for Victims of Torture dramatically slashes workforce after Trump administration orders

a man speaks to an audience
President Donald Trump addresses the 2025 Republican Issues Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami on Monday in Doral, Fla.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

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The Center for Victims of Torture announced Tuesday on social media that they received stop-work orders on Friday from the U.S. State Department. The organization, which provides care for survivors of torture and trauma around the globe, said they had to immediately halt multiple international programs.

“We were forced to cease those operations at once and furlough the large majority of our staff,” the social media post said.

The organization also said some of its programs would be affected by a pause on federal grants and loans, although President Donald Trump’s budget office rescinded that memo on Wednesday.

The Center for Victims of Torture was founded 40 years ago to provide care for torture survivors, mostly refugees and asylum seekers. It also works to train and help other groups supporting those survivors.

“We’ve become the biggest torture rehabilitation organization in the world and operate in six countries around the world,” the center’s president and CEO Simon Adams said.

He said the past several days have been chaotic for humanitarian organizations, with stop-work orders and a halt to foreign aid.

“As a result of those executive orders and the freeze to international aid … we’ve had to furlough about 75 percent of our staff,” Adams said.

Adams said the massive workforce reduction means the center will have to turn away torture survivors who need help. Adams said his organization and many others have been scrambling to figure out what’s next.

“The whole humanitarian sector is just absolutely devastated by what’s happening, and we’re all scrambling to fill the gaps, to figure out if we can survive,” Adams said. “We’re having to turn away torture survivors who are desperate for help, for whom we are a lifeline back to healing and hope.”