The family of Leonard Farruku is calling for an independent inquiry into his death on the Bibby Stockholm barge, the Guardian has learned.
The Albanian asylum seeker, 27, was found dead on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, on 12 December last year, after a suspected suicide.
Lawyers for the family have written to the justice minister, Alex Chalk, asking for the prisons and probation ombudsman (PPO) to investigate the death. The request has been passed to the Home Office.
While it is mandatory for the PPO to investigate deaths in immigration detention, the barge is not classified as a detention centre even though men are placed there against their will and describe it as “prison-like”.
According to the letter from the law firm Bhatt Murphy the “closed, quasi-detention conditions” cannot be meaningfully distinguished from detention and require an independent body like the PPO to examine the circumstances surrounding the death.
Little is known about the circumstances leading up to Farruku’s death but a support worker has told the Guardian he repeatedly raised concerns with Home Office contractors about his mental health before he was placed on the barge, but was ignored.
He said everyone called him “Faruk” and that he suffered from severe mood swings. “He had been let down for a long time from pretty much every direction,” said the support worker. “I was always really concerned about him and sometimes he went into mental health crisis.
“There are so many important parts of his story that need to be told as I am convinced this will happen again if pressure is not put on those who hold duty of care to support these people and who are consistently failing to meet their duty.”
The support worker claimed Farruku was terrified of being taken to the barge and refused to go there but was “tricked” into getting into the car to go there by contractors who told him he was going to be taken to a hotel in Swindon.
“When a car came to collect him to take him to the barge he became hysterical and refused to go. He agreed to get into the car when he was told he would be taken to the Swindon hotel instead. He was tricked.”
He said men who went to the barge with Farruku reported him behaving strangely once he was onboard and said he spent hours passively standing on the beach in Weymouth and staring out at the sea.
“This was uncharacteristic behaviour for Faruk,” said the support worker. “He asked for help on the barge but didn’t get the support he needed. I believe it was the barge that did it for Faruk.”
Farruku’s sister Jola Dushku, 33, who lives in Lombardy, Italy, said her brother was “sweet and beautiful” and dreamed of being a rapper when he was living in Albania. She said the family was still in a state of shock about his death.
She said the UK government had not formally notified her or her older sister, Marsida, 35, about Farruku’s death and that cousins in the UK had been informed instead and had passed on the news.
“We have had no support and nobody has spoken to us,” she said. “It’s insulting.
“I have a question for the Home Office. Why do you give migrants hope and then kill them? By killing them you are killing us too. What I want to know is the truth about what happened to Leonard.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This was a tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone affected. This incident is currently being investigated by the police and coroner and it is right that the facts and circumstances are established in the appropriate, legal manner. We take the welfare of all asylum seekers very seriously, and all concerns raised by any asylum seekers are dealt with sensitively.”
