Unwanted, Unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe SWEDEN SNAPSHOT: The disbelieving and unsympathetic response to asylum seeking children in Sweden exacerbated their distress, according to many reports over a decade, and undocumented migrants suffer from poor health and limited access to health care.109 • Unidentified boy, 04/2010 An unidentified boy committed suicide after being refused asylum. The youngster had become severely depressed and was being treated by the Child and Adult Psychiatry agencies. The doctor had recommended institutional care and a request had been made to the youth housing department but it did not reach the personnel in charge. The National Board of Health and Welfare recognised that failures within the system contributed to the boy’s suicide.110 • Cumar Yusuf Dayib (45), 12/11/2013 Dayib, a Somali asylum seeker, was shot and killed by a police officer at the Paradiset accommodation centre, in Geijersholm, Hagfors, which has a reputation for neglect. Residents said Dayib had been drunk and threatened others before the police came. One police officer claimed that Dayib came at him with a knife and ignored demands to stop, leaving no time to fire warning shots. Dayib was shot twice through the chest. The Migration Board refused to investigate the matter, saying that it was the responsibility of the police, who later announced an internal investigation.111 SWITZERLAND SNAPSHOT: Switzerland has come under fire for its isolation of asylum seekers in remote villages and their exclusion from communal facilities, provoking accusations of segregation and discrimination. Windowless military bunkers sleeping thirty, curfews and containers high in the mountains are among the reception facilities for asylum seekers.112 • Joseph Ndukaku Chiakwa (29), 16/03/2010 A Nigerian asylum seeker, Chiakwa died at Zurich airport just after being strapped into a chair to be taken onto a charter deportation flight. A police statement on the death said that Chiakwa resisted being strapped to the seat, so that force had to be used. The public minister of Zurich closed the inquest into his death in 2012, stating that according to two autopsies Chiakwa had a serious heart condition and died of natural causes. Some claimed that the stress of deportation coupled with Chiakwa’s hunger strike may have contributed to cardiac arrest, and Amnesty International called for independent monitoring of deportations.113 • Oleg N. (28), 12/11/2012 A Russian asylum seeker committed suicide in the Klöten detention centre in Zurich. Oleg sought asylum in February 2012 on the basis of what he described as pressure placed upon him as a result of his sexuality. He said he had been imprisoned, violently beaten, and sent to a psychiatric centre. The trauma of sexual repression and persecution brought about psychological problems and he had undergone some therapy.114 • Unidentified woman, 17/11/2012 An Eritrean asylum seeker committed suicide in a psychiatric hospital in Liestal, near Basel, apparently in fear of removal to Italy. She was due to be transferred there, with her three children, under the Dublin regulation, but the Bale-Campagne authorities reversed the decision on medical grounds, and say they let her know and did not understand why she had committed suicide. Her three children were placed with families in Belgium.115 • Unidentified man, 19/11/2012 An Armenian asylum seeker committed suicide in a hospital in Winterthour.116 • Unidentified man, 04/01/2013 A Kurdish asylum seeker committed suicide by hanging himself in a police cell in Zurich.117 IRR | European Research Progamme Briefing No. 10 23