THE ASYLUM SEEKER MEMORIAL PROJECT

THE HOME OFFICE DOES NOT PUBLISH DATA ON THE DEATHS OF ASYLUM SEEKERS IN ITS HOUSING…

… despite calls from experts and campaigners to do so. We set out to gather as much information as possible about each of them. Here, we tell their stories. https://www.asylumseekermemorial.co.uk/

This is a journalistic project bearing witness to the stories of those who have died while provided with asylum seeker housing in Britain since 2016.

Asylum seekers are generally barred from working while they await the result of their claim. Many can’t afford to live. The Government has a duty to house them during this time.

In 2020, amid a growing backlog in asylum case decisions and the pressures of the pandemic, the Home Office expanded its use of contingency accommodation including ex-military barracks and hotels. In these and other types of asylum seeker housing – provided under contract by private firms Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears, Serco – reports arose of poor living conditions and problems accessing medical care.

The Government doesn’t publish data on deaths in this accommodation, so our journalists set out to gather it.

Care4Calais:

This is Mohammed Camara, aged 26, whom we first met in Calais and who arrived in the UK in June 2020. He had been horrifically tortured at home in the Ivory Coast and on his way through Libya, and because of this was constantly racked with pain throughout his body.

When he arrived, a doctor classed him as an adult at risk after finding scars “suggesting of savage beatings”. The Home Office’s National Referral Mechanism also identified him as a potential modern slavery victim.

By rights he should have received extra care. However, his friends told us he asked the hotel staff for help constantly, but was always told he could not go to hospital or to a doctor.

Tia, a Care4Calais volunteer, befriended Mohammad and tried to help him. Early one morning, she got a phone call from his friend there. Mohammad had died in his room from a cardiac arrest.

“C’est trop tard [it’s too late],” his friend kept repreating. “C’est trop tard.”

The coroner accepted that Mohammad had requested help , but said there was “no connection between Mr Camara’s death and the back pain he suffered.” But friends still believe Camara could have been saved if just once he had had the medical aid he asked for.

Tragically and appallingly, many other men, women and child asylum seekers have died while waiting in asylum accommodation for their claims to be processed. However, the Government does not publish data about such deaths, so the numbers are not easily discovered.

For more than a year we have been working with Liberty Investigates and other organisations to help track these deaths. For the period between April 2016 and the end of August 2022 the toll stands at 140.

These deaths are now listed at the Asylum Seeker Memorial Project (www.asylumseekermemorial.co.uk), an important new site launched by Liberty Investigates. Where they are known, the story of the victim is recorded.

Liberty are still working to track details of asylum seekers who have died. If you have any information, please contact EleanorR@libertyhumanrights.org.uk