The death of 2-year-old Awaab Ishak has rocked the nation with some of the most senior politicians in the country expressing their outrage that this was allowed to happen. The toddler, who 'was full of life and laughter', died after prolonged exposure to damp and mould at his Rochdale home, a coroner ruled yesterday, with the family hitting out at the housing association's 'racism' in not tackling the issue.
A statement read on behalf of Awaab's father Faisal Abdullah, who came to the UK from Sudan as an asylum seeker in 2015, and his wife Aisha Amin, who joined him in 2018, said that the couple's repeated cries for help to their housing association, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), fell on deaf ears as Awaab died just days after his second birthday.
"We cannot tell you how many health professionals we've cried in front and RBH staff we have pleaded to expressing concern for the conditions ourselves and Awaab have been living in. We shouted out as loudly as we could, but despite making all of those efforts, every night we would be coming back to the same problem. Nothing was changing," they said.
