Teenager in asylum backlog killed himself in Home Office hotel accommodation
![](https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SEI_205692295-1200x630-pl-investigation.jpg)
The brother of a teenage asylum seeker who took his life in Home Office hotel accommodation has spoken of the despair and isolation that he believes contributed to his siblingâs death â as campaigners demand an urgent investigation into the tragedy.
Ismael Maolanzadeh, 19, was found dead in a Birmingham hotel room by his older sibling Mustafa in December last year after they fled Iran together and crossed the Channel to the UK in a small boat months earlier.
A coroner last month found that the teenager had died by suicide following an argument with his long-distance girlfriend. But his older brother this week disputed the idea that a relationship row had spurred his siblingâs actions, saying instead that an absence of information about their fate in the asylum system had tipped his âjoyful, happyâ brother into a fatal depression.
The Kurdish brothers fled their native Iran in fear of arrest and capital punishment after taking part in protests against the Tehran regime. âWe ran away from death and execution, but we didnât know that he would die here,â Mustafa said.
Details of Ismaelâs death have come to light after an investigation by i and Liberty Investigates established his identity from anonymised Home Office data which withheld his name and the location of his death.
The horse-loving teenager is one of 27 asylum claimants living in Home Office accommodation known to have taken their own lives in the last four years. Just two days after Ismaelâs death, Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old Albanian asylum seeker and musician, was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm barge in an apparent suicide.
Lawyers and human rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the impact of long delays in the asylum system on the mental health of applicants as they wait months and even years for progress on their claims, with some facing the threat of deportation under the Governmentâs Rwanda scheme.
![](https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SEI_205668915-e1716471206839.jpg?w=760)
The Home Office underlined that it has measures in place to ensure that asylum seekers can access healthcare and support for vulnerable individuals. âWe take the welfare of asylum seekers extremely seriously,â a spokesperson said.
Documents obtained under freedom of information rules show that Ismaelâs case had been passed to the Home Officeâs Third Country Unit (TCU), the immigration team responsible for deciding whether a migrant should be barred from applying to stay in the UK under new âinadmissibilityâ rules which automatically blocks claims for reasons such as entering the country illegally.
Ismaelâs TCU status meant that he was at risk of inclusion in the new Rwanda scheme, although it appears his case had been paused at the time of his death and he was not formally informed of his status because of the legal and political wrangling over the policy at the time.
Lawyers, MPs and charities have questioned the investigation into Ismaelâs death after an inquest hearing last month that was due to hear evidence from witnesses was cancelled and the formal procedure to decide how and why the teenager died was instead conducted using written submissions.
![](https://wp.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SEI_205668917.jpg?w=760)
The verdict of suicide made no mention of the teenagerâs asylum seeker status, prompting concern from one leading campaign group that, in the absence of a broader inquiry by the Home Office exploring safeguarding issues and the impact of the asylum system on the mental health of migrants, Ismaelâs death had been âswept under the carpetâ.
The decision to cancel the formal inquest hearing due on 29 April meant that Mustafa, who had become increasingly concerned at his siblingâs declining mental health after four months in which they had received no news on their asylum claims, was unable to testify about his brotherâs well-being despite wishing to do so.
Mustafa, 23, this week told i and Liberty Investigates that his brother â a âjoyful, happy boyâ from whom he was âinseparableâ â had become depressed since reaching Britain and struggled to cope in accommodation which felt more like a âprisonâ. He said: âWe had so many plans together. We ran away from death and execution, but we didnât know that he would die here⌠He was depressed most of the time.â
Mustafa said he was informed three weeks after his brotherâs death that he had been listed as a witness to give evidence at an inquest hearing due to take place at the end of April. He was then âshockedâ when he was told by hotel staff via the court shortly before the hearing that he would no longer be needed. No statement given personally by Mustafa appears in the evidence bundle compiled for the inquest. He said: âSince what happened, no-one [has] bothered to explain or to give me a clue about whatâs going on.â
It has been established by i and Liberty Investigates that the only evidence submitted to the inquest as to whether Ismaelâs mental wellbeing had been affected by his experience in the asylum system came in a written statement from a housing officer for Home Office contractor Serco. The worker at the hotel close to central Birmingham where Ismael and his brother had stayed since last August said her duties had included checking on the welfare of residents but that she had ânot had any dealingsâ with Ismael prior to his death.
The employee said instead that there was âno suggestion that he suffered mental health issues or was feeling suicidalâ after a computer system used to log information on asylum seekers at the hotel showed âno recorded incidentsâ relating to the teenager had been logged by staff. Serco pointed out that it is not responsible for the healthcare of residents and its employees are not directly employed as welfare support staff.
On the basis of the written submissions, Birmingham area coroner James Bennett found that the teenager had taken his life and that decision followed a ârecent relationship breakdownâ with his girlfriend in Iran. Mustafa has since disputed that this account, given to police on the day of his brotherâs death, correctly reflects his brotherâs state of mind, saying that while his sibling and his girlfriend sometimes argued, it was a ânormalâ part of their relationship.
Under rules introduced two years ago, coroners are now allowed to conduct inquests using written submissions for âstraightforward and uncontentiousâ deaths if they do not believe a hearing is in the public interest. Like other parts of the justice system, the coronerâs service across Britain has faced growing backlogs of cases. Earlier this month, Judge Thomas Teague, the Chief Coroner for England and Wales, said âchronic underfundingâ was a major factor in a 25 per cent year-on-year leap in the number of inquests taking more than a year to be resolved.
But legal experts and campaigners said they struggled to understand how the âvery quickâ handling of Ismaelâs case could be reconciled with his status as a vulnerable young person who was effectively under the care of the British state.
Deborah Coles, executive director of INQUEST, a charity specialising in state-linked deaths, said: âIt is just too easy to sweep these deaths under the carpet with no meaningful engagement or no engagement at all from family and friends.
âThere are fundamental questions to be asked of the Home Office about safeguarding and protection, particularly given the inherent vulnerabilities [of asylum seekers]. We should be calling for a broader investigation into these deaths.â
When asked about the conduct of the inquest into Ismaelâs death, Louise Hunt, the Senior Coroner for Birmingham and Solihull said the proceedings had been concluded and pointed to guidance prohibiting coroners from commenting on cases. This guidance states: âCoroners are judicial office holders and like other judges are not permitted to comment outside a courtroom on any of their cases⌠or discuss any decision they have made.â
Five immigration lawyers and three Labour MPs have nonetheless joined a call from INQUEST and the Refugee Council for an investigation into whether Ismaelâs experience of the asylum system could have contributed to his death.
Laura Smith, co-legal director of the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants, said: âWe see clients all the time who go months â sometimes years â without hearing any news from the Home Office. This leaves them unable to work, with no freedom, and cuts them off from communities by moving them around hotels and camps. The uncertainty and fear of detention and removal has a huge impact on people. Unfortunately, it is very common to see peopleâs mental health deteriorate further and further as they remain in the UK.â
Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, who has campaigned on asylum issues, said she was concerned at a âfundamental lack of transparency and accountabilityâ over Ismaelâs death. She said the circumstances needed âthorough investigationâ.
âOne death of an asylum seeker in the care of our state is one death too many, it is a tragedy,â she said.
Despite the lack of detail in Home Office records, an in-depth investigation by i and Liberty Investigates was able to establish Ismaelâs identity by obtaining emergency service data for sudden fatalities around the date of his death, which were subsequently confirmed with records held by the coronerâs service.
Mustafa described how he and his brother had departed last June from their home in Iran, where they worked as farmers, with dreams of becoming mechanics in Britain and escaping what he said was a constant threat of arrest and execution.
After travelling for two months across Europe, the pair crossed the Channel in a crude inflatable boat and were brought to Dover. They reached Birmingham in early August last year, eventually sharing a room in the hotel on the edge of the city centre, which houses some 320 asylum seekers.
Mustafa said Ismael had become increasingly disconsolate and despairing after going four months without any indication of their future status and growing unhappiness at their cramped living conditions, which he said were âlike a prisonâ.
Speaking through a translator, Mustafa said: âYou spend your time, 24 hours, between four walls and thereâs nothing you can do. You donât have money to go out. My brother was very, very active. He was always participating in the protests [in Iran]. He had a lot of energy. But once he got here, itâs like all these things had been taken away from him. He got depressed.â
Mustafa added that the pair had sometimes questioned their decision to come to Britain and whether they had a future in this country. He said: âWe were saying, âlook, we came all this way and we have risked our lifeâ⌠Look where we are, we donât belong anywhere.â
Zoe Bantleman, legal director of the Immigration Law Practitionersâ Association, said the governmentâs inadmissibility policy had created âa large and ever-growing black hole of people left in permanent limboâ.
She said: âThe vast majority are unremovable to countries with which they have no connection, but they are condemned to a life without hope of obtaining sanctuary and denied the opportunity to build a meaningful life.â
The elder brother, who said he is plagued by guilt at Ismaelâs death, said he had gone for a haircut on 10 December last year and become increasingly concerned when his younger sibling had failed to answer phone calls. Upon his return to the hotel, he found Ismael unconscious and not breathing in their room. Attempts to administer CPR failed and Ismael was declared dead at the scene. No suicide note was found.
Mustafa added that he could not say with certainty whether his brother had been aware of the Rwanda scheme but said he believed the absence of information about his status had impacted his brotherâs state of mind and his decision to take his life. He said: âIf we at least had some information about what was going to happen to us⌠my brother might not have made that decision because we would have some hope.â
The older brother in particular disputed a description in a report of the death compiled by West Midlands Police which said he had told officers that Islmael had spoken to his girlfriend the day before his death and subsequently become âvery upset and disengagedâ. He said: âI was aware that sometimes they were having a fight. They were getting [back] together the next day. He was 19 years old. So I took it as something normal.â
A Home Office spokesperson said: âThis was a tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone affected. We take the welfare of asylum seekers extremely seriously. At every stage in the process, our approach is to ensure that all needs and vulnerabilities are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.â
Anyone can contact Samaritans FREE any time from any phone on 116 123, even a mobile without credit. This number wonât show up on your phone bill. Or you can emailâŻ[email protected]âŻor visitâŻwww.samaritans.orgâŻfor more information.