Glasgow MPs Call For Inquiry Into Deaths of Three Asylum Seekers

A group of Glasgow MPs have called for a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the deaths of three asylum seekers. Adnan Walid Elbi, Badreddin Abedlla Adam and Mercy Baguma all died this year while in the care of the UK asylum system. While each death happened separately, in a letter to the Lord Advocate MPs said they were linked to “broader social and situational factors”. It follows criticism of the city’s asylum seeker “accommodation crisis”. In May, Mr Elbi was found dead in his room in temporary accommodation at MacLays Guest House – the 30-year-old had fled his home in Syria. The cause of death was marked as “unascertained”. The following month, Mr Adam from Sudan was shot dead by police after stabbing six people, including an officer, at the Park Inn hotel. Asylum seekers had been moved there in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which the Home Office called a “temporary measure”.

Refugee charity Positive Action in Housing held a press conference following the incident, which heard some of the asylum seekers in the Park Inn were “desperate and vulnerable”. The asylum seekers said many of them had no windows or fresh air in their rooms. They also said they had been in a dire mental health situation. Then on 22 August Ms Baguma, originally from Uganda, was discovered dead in a flat after her toddler son’s crying was heard. Positive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma had claimed asylum, but lived in “extreme poverty” and lost her job after her right to work in the UK expired. The cause of her death is still being investigated.

Read more: BBC News, https://is.gd/nDycE0