LONDON: Thirteen asylum seekers have committed suicide in the UK in the past two and a half years, with a further 24 attempting suicide during the same period.
The Times reported that the incidents involved children, such as a 14-year-old Iraqi girl who jumped off a building and sustained severe head injuries.
Thirteen people died, all but one of whom had their asylum claims rejected, while one was aged between 19 and 45, including a 21-year-old Russian woman who committed suicide in a London canal.
The Ministry of the Interior also recorded 32 additional cases of serious self-harm by refugee applicants during the period, with the youngest applicant being 17 and the oldest being 48. Nationalities included in the self-harm data include individuals from Iran, Syria, Libya, South Africa and Turkey.
A Yemeni doctor who is applying for refugee status in the UK in 2023 has told The Times that the environment for refugees in the UK is not ideal, blaming a spike in self-harm or suicide attempts.
“The officers treat you like you’re some kind of criminal. It feels like being in prison. You don’t get visitors except for a few moments (and) it’s not easy to get out,” she said.
“A lot of refugee applicants say that we are treated like beggars, whereas most refugee applicants come from very successful careers. Overnight, you are treated like that. And this is your life because you don’t know how long it will take. I never thought I would have to fight every day for basic human needs or basic rights.”
The length and uncertainty surrounding making a refugee status application in the UK is thought to play a significant role in the mental health of refugee claimants in the UK, with more than two-thirds of the 161,000 refugee claimants awaiting a preliminary decision on their status by spring 2023 having to wait longer than six months for a decision.
A Namibian nurse and former UN worker told The Times she applied for refugee status in the UK in February 2020 but was denied until August 2023.
During that time, she said she was “removed from a safe environment” and moved to a hotel in Glasgow, where a Sudanese asylum seeker stabbed six people in June 2022 while she was living there.
She said she and others were not offered mental health support after the attack.
“It all seemed like we couldn’t even ask questions,” she told The Times. “It was something I never thought would happen in the UK. I never thought I would be so scared in the UK in my life.”
“People who have been displaced and are now seeking asylum and protection may face violence, harm, exploitation and the loss of loved ones, which can be deeply traumatic experiences and increase a person’s risk of developing mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder,” Professor Cornelius Katona, head of refugee and asylum mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Times.
“Asylum seekers also face housing, employment and financial uncertainty upon arrival in the UK, while also having difficulty accessing healthcare. All of these factors can exacerbate pre-existing mental illnesses and may lead to increased suicide or self-harm.”
Although the Home Office provides training to staff to deal with issues such as PTSD and suicidal tendencies, questions have been raised about the suitability of specialist detention centres, including the former British air force base at Wethersfield in Essex, where emergency services were called out on 38 separate occasions in the first five months of 2024.
Medecins Sans Frontieres claims that 41 percent of people who use its medical services have done so because of suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
“While there are clear differences between hotels and detention centres, the poor living conditions, security failures and delays people experience lead to varying degrees of distress and mental health problems,” the charity told The Times.
The High Court in London is currently hearing a lawsuit brought by four former residents over the site. It also alleges that the cargo ship Bibby Stockholm, which is set to be decommissioned in January 2025, is unfit to house asylum seekers after an Albanian man died by suicide in December 2023.
“We take the health and wellbeing of all refugee applicants seriously and at every stage of the process we will ensure that all needs and vulnerabilities are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma. We will take necessary action where serious incidents are reported to ensure that our protection standards remain at the highest level,” a Home Office spokesman told The Times.
