He died after breathing in severe levels of mould in a one-bedroom Rochdale flat, eight days after his second birthday. Awaab Ishak suffered a cardiac arrest, brought on by respiratory failure. His home, which should have been a place of safety and sanctuary, poisoned his tiny body.
His parents, Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin, who came to the UK as asylum seekers from Sudan, had repeatedly complained to their landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), about mould in their property on the Freehold estate, and followed the advice they were given about tackling it.
Nearly two years on from Awaab's December 2020 death, an inquest has concluded he suffered a cardiac arrest due to respiratory failure, which had been caused by mould affecting his airway, in a poorly ventilated flat which an expert would describe as 'unfit for human habitation'. His family said, after the hearing, that RBH's treatment had left them feeling 'absolutely worthless', and that they had 'no doubt at all that we were treated this way because we are not from the country'.
