In August, two asylum seekers apparently took their own lives: one was found hanged in a Manchester park and another shot himself two days after being deported to Kurdistan.
According to Indymedia, on 5 August, an Iranian asylum seeker, Nadir Zarabee, was found hanged in a park in Longsight, Manchester after being asked to leave his Trafford home which had been provided by M&Q Properties Ltd, a private company contracted by National Asylum Support Service (NASS) to provide housing to asylum seekers in the area.
On 9 August 2008, anti-racists, refugees and supporters held a demonstration in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre in response to the death.
Criminalised and deported
On 10 August 2008, 35-year-old Hussein Ali shot himself in the cellar of his home in Sulaimania, Kurdistan two days after being deported from the UK. Hussein had been in the UK since 2002. He was detained for fifty days at Oakington removal centre in Cambridgeshire after being arrested in London after being caught working without permission. He was deported to Erbil via Jordan on 7 August 2008.
His family are desperate to know how he was treated in detention. ‘His treatment in the UK and the process of asylum penalised him for not having enough evidence, led to his death,’ they stated.
The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees added, ‘Hussein Ali is a victim of the UK home office’s continuing inhuman policy of forcibly deporting Iraqi Kurds’. The group will be holding a demonstration outside the Home Office on 11 September.
Related links
Indymedia article by Miriam Hollis: Unacceptable death of Hussein Ali