Unwanted, Unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe BULGARIA SNAPSHOT: UNHCR and Amnesty International condemned Bulgaria’s brutal and demeaning treatment of asylum seekers in 2013 and 2014, reporting on guards beating and forcibly preventing the entry of asylum seekers, and reception conditions featuring containers providing only one square metre of space for each occupant, showers shared by 100 people and toilets by fifty, in windowless and unheated accommodation.12 • Unidentified man (35), 21/11/2013 A Syrian refugee and father of three died after leaving the ‘emergency centre’ of Harmanli in the Haskovo Province. The man had been complaining of heart pain and medical problems but received no medical attention or care in the centre. He had arrived in Bulgaria with his wife and three children a week prior to his death, but they were released from the centre with no help or guidance on how to find accommodation in Sofia. They subsequently sought shelter in another asylum centre, Voenna Rampa, where it is believed that the father suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. An ambulance was called an hour after his death.13 CYPRUS SNAPSHOT: Migrants and asylum seekers, including undeportable Syrian refugees, are routinely detained for lengthy periods in Cyprus, in breach of EU safeguards, and women forcibly separated from young children, according to Amnesty International.14 • Unidentified man (54), 31/01/2011 A Pakistani undocumented migrant died after jumping from the window of his flat in Nicosia as the police arrived at the building to perform immigration checks. It appears that the man feared being detained and deported.15 • Unidentified woman (39), 07/10/2012 A Nepalese undocumented migrant died after jumping from a fifth-floor balcony in Larnaca when police arrived at the building after receiving complaints of noise. The woman feared that they were immigration police and that she would be deported. Six other people in the apartment were arrested by the police, two for not having a legal permit to stay in the country, and four for providing shelter to an irregular migrant.16 • Kamiran Muhamad (33), 17/04/2013 Syrian Kurdish asylum seeker Muhamad committed suicide in Arodes three months after fleeing Syria. The Cypriot authorities had refused asylum to Muhamad, a father of four. KISA, a Cypriot anti-racist NGO, describes the precarious situation of Kurdish refugees in Cyprus, as the Cypriot authorities provide visitor status to refugees but employment laws ban work by non-EU nationals, who remain unable to find employment or stable accommodation.17 • Unnamed Syrian Kurd (27), 28/12/2013 Another Syrian Kurd who was due to be deported at the end of a one-year sentence for possession of drugs hanged himself with his shoelaces in Nicosia central prison, following several unsuccessful suicide attempts. The man had reportedly learned that his mother and two nieces had been killed in Syria. He was supposedly under strict watch in solitary confinement.18 FINLAND SNAPSHOT: The very small capacity of Finland’s dedicated immigration detention facilities (the total capacity was 42) means that undocumented migrants and asylum seekers are sometimes held in police detention, which has attracted criticism. Finland’s deportation policies have also attracted criticism, as well as hunger strikes.19 IRR | European Research Progamme Briefing No. 10 9