LONDON: In the last two and a half years, 13 asylum seekers have committed suicide in Britain, and a further 24 have attempted to take their own lives in the same period.
According to a report in the Times, children were among them, such as a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who jumped from a building and suffered serious head injuries.
Of the 13 dead, all but one were awaiting a decision on their asylum application; the other had been rejected. They were aged between 19 and 45, including a 21-year-old Russian woman who took her own life next to a London canal.
The Home Office also recorded 32 cases of serious self-harm by asylum seekers during the period in question. The youngest case was 17 years old and the oldest 48 years old. The data on self-harm included people from Iran, Syria, Libya, South Africa and Turkey.
A Yemeni doctor who applied for asylum in the UK in 2023 told the Times that conditions for asylum seekers in the UK were unsuitable and blamed them for the number of people who self-harm or attempt suicide.
“The staff treat you like a criminal – you feel like you're in prison. You don't get visitors except at certain times and you can't just walk out,” she said.
“Many asylum seekers keep saying that we are treated like beggars, even though many asylum seekers come from particularly successful professions. You are treated like that overnight – and that's life, you don't know how long. I never thought that I would have to fight for basic human needs or basic rights every day.”
The lengthy process and uncertainty surrounding asylum applications in the UK are thought to play a major role in the mental health of asylum seekers in the UK. More than two-thirds of the 161,000 asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision on their status in spring 2023 will have to wait over six months for an outcome.
A Namibian nurse and former UN worker told the Times that she applied for asylum in the UK in February 2020 but was not rejected until August 2023.
During that time, she said, she was “taken from a safe environment” and taken to a hotel in Glasgow, where, while staying there in June 2022, six people were stabbed to death by a Sudanese asylum seeker.
She said she and others were not offered mental health support after the attack.
“Everything feels like we can't ask questions,” she told the Times. “This is something I never expected in Britain. Never in my life did I think I would be afraid in Britain.”
Prof Cornelius Katona, head of the asylum seeker and refugee mental health unit at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Times: “People who have been displaced and are seeking refuge and protection may have been exposed to violence, danger or exploitation and may have lost loved ones. These can be deeply traumatic experiences and increase the risk of someone developing a mental health condition such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Asylum seekers also face significant insecurities around housing, employment and finances when they arrive in the UK, as well as difficulties in accessing healthcare. All of these factors can exacerbate existing mental illness and potentially lead to increased suicidality or self-harm.”
Although the Home Office trains its staff to deal with issues such as PTSD and suicidal tendencies, questions have also been raised about the suitability of specialist detention centres. Such centres include a former Royal Air Force base at Wethersfield in Essex, where emergency services were called out 38 times in the first five months of 2024.
Doctors Without Borders reported that 41 percent of people in the area sought medical services because they reported suicidal thoughts or behavior.
The aid agency told the Times: “While there are clear differences between hotels and camps, the often poor living conditions, security deficiencies and long delays that people experience lead to varying degrees of suffering and psychological problems.”
A case brought by four former residents over the site is currently being heard in the High Court in London. There have also been allegations that the barge Bibby Stockholm, which is due to be decommissioned in January 2025, is unsuitable for housing asylum seekers following the death of an Albanian man by suspected suicide in December 2023.
A Home Office spokesperson told The Times: “We take the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers seriously and at every stage of the process we will seek to ensure that all needs and vulnerabilities are identified and addressed, including those related to mental health and trauma. We ensure that when a serious incident is reported, we take the necessary action to ensure our safeguarding standards remain at the highest level.”
