LONDON: Thirteen asylum seekers have committed suicide in the UK in the last two-and-a-half years, while a further 24 have attempted suicide in the same period.
A Times report found that among them were children, including a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who jumped from a building and suffered serious head injuries.
Of the 13 who died, all but one were awaiting decisions on their asylum claims, with the other having been rejected. They ranged in age from 19 to 45, and among them was a 21-year-old Russian woman who took her own life beside a London canal.
A further 32 cases of serious self-harm by asylum seekers were recorded by the Home Office during the period, with the youngest being aged 17 and the oldest being 48. Nationalities represented in the self-harm data included people from Iran, Syria, Libya, South Africa and Turkey.
A Yemeni doctor who sought asylum in the UK in 2023 told The Times that conditions for asylum seekers in the UK were unsuitable, blaming them for the number of people who self-harm or attempt suicide.
“The staff members treat you like you're some kind of criminal, it feels like prison. You don't get visitors except (during) certain hours (and) it's not easy to get out,” he said.
“Many asylum seekers keep saying that we are treated like beggars, when many of them come from overachieving professions. From one day to the next you are treated like this, and this is your life, for who knows how long. I never thought I would have to fight every day for basic human needs or basic rights.”
The length and uncertainty surrounding asylum applications in the UK is thought to play a major role in the mental health outcomes of asylum seekers in the UK, with over two-thirds of the 161,000 asylum seekers awaiting initial decisions on their status in spring 2023 awaiting an outcome for more than six months.
A Namibian nurse and former UN worker told The Times that she applied for asylum in the UK in February 2020, but was only refused in August 2023.
During that time, she said, she was “taken out of a safe environment” and moved to a hotel in Glasgow, where six people were stabbed by a Sudanese asylum seeker in June 2022, while she was living there.
She said she and others were not offered any mental health support after the attack.
“It all feels like we can’t ask questions,” she told The Times. “It’s something I never expected in the UK. I never expected to be scared in the UK.”
Professor Cornelius Katona, head of asylum and refugee mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Times: “People who have been displaced and are seeking refuge and protection may have experienced violence, danger or exploitation and lost loved ones. These can be deeply traumatic experiences and increase the risk of someone developing a mental illness such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Asylum seekers also face significant uncertainty about housing, employment and finances when they arrive in the UK, as well as difficulties accessing healthcare. All of these factors can exacerbate existing mental illness and potentially lead to increased suicidality or self-harm.”
While the Home Office provides training to staff to deal with issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidality, questions have also been raised about the suitability of dedicated detention centres, including a former Royal Air Force base at Wethersfield in Essex, where emergency services were called on 38 separate occasions in the first five months of 2024.
Doctors Without Borders said that 41 percent of people at its site who used its medical services reported having suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
The charity told The Times: “While there are clear differences between hotels and containment sites, the often poor living conditions, security shortcomings and prolonged delays that people experience lead to varying levels of distress and mental health problems.”
A case brought by four former residents of the site is currently being heard in the High Court in London. There have also been allegations that the barge Bibby Stockholm, a vessel due to be decommissioned in January 2025, was unfit to house asylum seekers after an Albanian man died in a 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 relating to mental health and trauma. We will ensure that when a serious incident is reported we take the necessary steps to ensure our safeguarding standards remain at the highest level.”
