A 14-YEAR-OLD girl from Iraq who threw herself from a building was among the 37 asylum seekers who have tried to take their own life in the past two and a half years, new figures have shown.
The Times reports that, since January 2022, the Home Office has documented 13 confirmed or suspected cases of suicide, 24 cases of attempted suicide and 32 cases of serious self-harm among adults and children being processed in the asylum system, figures under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.
The 13 people suspected or confirmed to have taken their own life since 2022 included individuals of nine different nationalities, with the youngest being 19 and the oldest 45.
In one case, a teenage girl described on Home Office records as a “dependent child in initial accommodation” attempted suicide by throwing herself from a first-floor corridor into the reception below.
The girl sustained head injuries but survived.
The Times also discovered that a 21-year-old Russian woman took her life at a canal in north London while a 40-year-old American man was found “brain-dead” by police after being reported for leaving his temporary housing carrying a blade.
Figures also showed a further 32 instances of self-harm took place during the period, with the age of those registered as self-harming ranging from 17 to 48, including people from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, South Africa and Turkey.
One Yemeni doctor who claimed asylum in 2023 told the newspaper she had seen multiple cases of self-harm and one attempted suicide.
She said: “A lot of asylum seekers keep saying that we’re treated like beggars, when a lot of asylum seekers come from overly achieving professions.
“Overnight you’re treated like that – and this is how your life is, for you don’t know how long.
“I never thought that I would have to fight on a daily basis for basic human needs or basic rights.”
One 28-year-old Iranian asylum seeker said they committed acts of self-harm over fear of being removed to Rwanda under the previous government’s plan, which has since been scrapped.
The Times further reported that, in spring 2023, the Home Office reported more than two-thirds of the 161,000 asylum seekers waiting an initial decision had been doing so for at least six months.
Staff at asylum residencies are trained in covering self-harm, suicide, vicarious trauma, PTSD and other conditions.
However, documentation revealed multiple cases of repeated self-harm among residents at housing sites with staff feeling they were unable to intervene.
One former nurse and UN co-ordinator, who left her home country of Namibia in 2019, said she lodged an asylum claim in February 2020 but did not receive a decision until August 2023, when the Home Office rejected her application. She is still waiting on the result of an appeal.
Although she described the initial accommodation as “very good,” she said she was “taken out of a safe environment” and moved to the Park Inn Hotel in Glasgow at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In June 2022, she was a resident when six people at the hotel were stabbed and claimed that neither the Home Office nor the housing provider offered here any support following the incident.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We take the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers seriously and at every stage in the process will seek to ensure that all needs and vulnerabilities are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.
“We ensure that where a serious incident is reported, we take the necessary action so our safeguarding standards remain at the highest level.”
If you feel affected by any of these issues, you can visit the Samaritans Scotland website HERE or call on 116 123.
