Unwanted, Unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe
informed that police wished to question
him about a rape allegation dating back a
number of years. He hanged himself on the
day police came to arrest him at the centre.130
• Bee Moyo (45), 12/03/2012
Moyo, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker, committed suicide in Ferham Park in Leeds. He
had been refused asylum, and was unable to
provide for his children financially. After an
argument with his partner, he left his house
saying that he intended to hang himself in
nearby woods. Police later searched the park
and found that Moyo had indeed hanged
himself, but an open verdict on his death
found that he may have intended to be
found and resuscitated.131
• Bernard Hukwa, 09/07/2012
A Zimbabwean asylum seeker, Hukwa was
found dead in the river Thames. He had
been awaiting the processing of his asylum
claim and was said to have been continuously worried that he was failing to provide
for his family in Zimbabwe.132
• Prince Kwabena Ofosu (31), 30/10/2012
A Ghanaian migrant, Ofosu was found dead in
his cell in Harmondsworth IRC, near London.
Ghanaian detainees released a statement
alleging Ofosu had been injured whilst being
forcibly restrained, and that he had been left
naked in a cell without heating. Detainees
also pointed to poor conditions and inadequate health care. A post-mortem was said
to have found no evidence of violence.133
• Khalid Shahzad (52), 30/03/2013
A Pakistani migrant, Shahzad died on a train
to Manchester shortly after being released
from Colnbrook IRC following three months
detention there. He was judged unfit to be
detained due to poor health, including heart
disease, thrombosis and diabetes, after he
collapsed, but was left to get home alone
when he was released the following day.
Fellow detainees described constant breathing difficulties throughout his detention,
and his family stated that a stent had been
fitted to help his heart and that he had had
several hospital stays, the latest four days
before his death.134
• Yousef Shokri-Gharab (34), 20/06/2013
An Iranian asylum seeker, Shokri-Gharab
committed suicide in a car park and was
pronounced dead at the Royal Liverpool
University Hospital. He had sought asylum
in Britain in January 2013, but had had his
claim rejected by the Home Office, and was
awaiting a tribunal appeal. Shokri-Gharab
suffered from a serious mental illness, had
expressed suicidal intentions and had a
history of self-harming (including overdoses
of medication, banging his head against a
wall, and cutting himself). He was given
unescorted leave from Windsor House, where
he was staying because of his history of
drug addiction, and was found dead of an
overdose of heroin a few days later.135
• Tahir Mehmood (43), 26/07/2013
A Pakistani migrant, Mehmood was found
dead in Pennine House, a short-term holding
facility near Manchester airport, five days
after being detained at the centre for
overstaying his visa. Relatives said he was
looking forward to returning to his family
in Pakistan, but fellow inmates reportedly
said he did not want to go back and had
complained of maltreatment at the hands of
staff. He was found collapsed at the centre.
A post-mortem found he died of ischaemic
heart disease.136
• Mohamoud Ali (36), 01/02/2014
An undocumented Somali migrant, Ali was
found dead in his cell in the G4S-run HMP
Parc prison in Bridgend. The wrong family
was notified of his death, and his own family
only heard about his death much later. No
information as to the cause of death has
been made available.137
• Leonovid Isufaj (27), 27/02/2014
An Albanian migrant, Isufaj committed
suicide off the coast of Harwich during
his deportation to the Netherlands. Two
Albanian men, Isufaj and another, allegedly
jumped from a Stena Britannica ferry during
IRR | European Research Progamme Briefing No. 10
26
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