Unwanted, Unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe groups, but is also a product of the inquest system, and of the systematic investigation of all deaths in prisons and immigration removal centres (IRCs) by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s office (PPO), which publishes reports on its website. (The PPO system is in turn a product of the persistent campaigning over decades by families of those dying in custody.) In some countries, such as Norway and Ireland, official statistics are kept, but no details are revealed as to why or how people died, and trying to find out is well-nigh impossible even for the tenacious Irish parliamentarians and refugee support organisations which have tried. In other countries, such as Hungary, Greece or Bulgaria, there appear to be no official records, and with no infrastructure for official accountability, no systematic monitoring and chaotic reception conditions, the deaths we have found out about are likely to be a fraction of the total. So the deaths we document here are no more than a snapshot, an indicative fragment of a larger picture of institutional indifference and negligence, of inhuman deterrent policies such as lengthy detention or consignment to a limbo of enforced dependence and destitution, where work is forbidden and life is suspended in waiting. Of the deaths we have recorded, 123 died as a consequence – direct or indirect – of the immigration/ asylum system – by taking their own lives due to stress placed on them by the asylum system or prior to deportation, by medical neglect in detention, by force, or by meeting accidental deaths through dangerous living conditions, homelessness or destitution. Of these: • 60 committed suicide1. In some cases, it seems to have been the fear of deportation that triggered suicide, hours or days before a scheduled removal. In other cases, detention or the deadly slow asylum process compounded mental health issues, often left untreated, driving asylum seekers to kill themselves, in detention or out of it. • 26 died – in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and the UK – as a result of illness, which was either left untreated, with medical assistance denied or severely delayed, or inadequately or inappropriately treated, or caused or exacerbated by conditions in detention, accommodation and reception centres, or by the threat of deportation. Table 2: Factors contributing to immigration and asylum-related deaths of migrants Suicide 46% Total (deaths by known causes) = 128 1 2 3 Medical factors1 20% Destitution 13% Police contact2 5% 4% 3%2% 7% Accidental Non-police Through homicide escape3 Postdeportation ‘Medical factors’ refers to deaths resulting from untreated illness, with medical assistance denied or severely delayed, or inadequately or inappropriately treated. It also includes deaths resulting from medical issues caused or exacerbated by conditions in detention, accommodation and reception centres, or by the threat of deportation. ‘Police contact’ refers to deaths following direct contact with police or security officials, both privatised and state-employed. These deaths occurred within detention centres, police stations, during deportation, in homes or on the street, and were the result of beatings, restraint or shooting. ‘Through escape’ refers to deaths during police chases or immigration raids, in accidents, or those afraid of being arrested who have thrown themselves from high-storey buildings. IRR | European Research Progamme Briefing No. 10 4