London: Thirteen asylum seekers have committed suicide in the UK in the past two and a half years, with 24 others attempting suicide during that period.
Among them are children, such as a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who threw herself from a building and suffered serious head injuries, The Times reported.
Of the 13 dead, all but one were awaiting decisions on their asylum applications, while the rest had had their applications rejected. They ranged in age from 19 to 45, and included a 21-year-old Russian woman who committed suicide by the side of a canal in London.
The Home Office recorded an additional 32 cases of serious self-harm by asylum seekers during the period, with the youngest aged 17 and the oldest aged 48. Nationalities represented in the self-harm data included people from Iran, Syria, Libya, South Africa and Turkey.
A Yemeni doctor who applied for asylum in the UK in 2023 told The Times that conditions for asylum seekers in the UK were inadequate, and blamed them for the number of people harming themselves or attempting suicide.
“The staff treat you like you're some kind of criminal – you feel like you're in a prison. You only have visitors (during) certain hours (and) it's not easy to get out,” she said.
“A lot of asylum seekers say we are treated like beggars, when in fact a lot of asylum seekers come from highly successful professions. Overnight you are treated like this – and that is your life, because you don’t know how long. I never imagined that I would have to struggle every day for basic human needs or basic rights.”
The length of time and uncertainty surrounding asylum applications in the UK is thought to play a significant role in the mental health conditions of asylum seekers in the UK, with more than two-thirds of the 161,000 asylum seekers waiting for initial decisions on their status in spring 2023 waiting more than six months for an outcome.
A Namibian nurse and former UN worker told The Times she applied for asylum in the UK in February 2020 but did not receive her refusal until August 2023.
During that time, she said, she was “taken out of a safe environment” and taken to a hotel in Glasgow, where six people were stabbed by a Sudanese asylum seeker in June 2022 while she was staying there.
She said she and others did not receive any mental health support in the aftermath of the attack.
“It all feels like we can’t ask questions,” she told The Times. “It’s something I never expected in the UK. I never in my life expected to feel so afraid in the UK.”
“People who have been displaced and are seeking refuge and protection may have experienced violence, danger or exploitation and lost loved ones,” Professor Cornelius Katona, head of the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Times. “These can be very traumatic experiences and increase the risk of someone developing a mental illness such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Asylum seekers also face significant uncertainty regarding housing, employment and financial status upon arrival in the UK, as well as difficulty accessing healthcare. All of these factors can exacerbate existing mental illness and may lead to increased suicidal or self-harm behaviour.”
Although the Home Office provides training for staff to deal with issues including post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal tendencies, questions have also been raised about the suitability of dedicated detention centres, including a former RAF base at Weatherfield in Essex, where emergency services were called on 38 separate occasions in the first five months of 2024.
MSF claimed that 41 percent of people at the site used its medical services because of suicidal thoughts or behavior.
“While there are clear differences between hotels and containment sites, the often poor living conditions, failures of protection and long delays people experience lead to varying levels of distress and mental health problems,” the charity told The Times.
A case brought by four former residents over the site is currently before the High Court in London. There have also been allegations that the Baby Stockholm, which is due to be decommissioned in January 2025, is unfit to house asylum seekers after an Albanian man committed suicide in December 2023.
A Home Office spokesperson told The Times: “We take the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and at every stage of the process we will seek to ensure that all needs and gaps are identified and addressed, including those relating to mental health and trauma. We ensure that if a serious incident is reported, we take action so that our safeguarding standards remain at the highest level.”