An investigation has been launched into the fourth death at a Lincoln immigration removal centre in the last year. A 27-year-old Iraqi man died at Morton Hall immigration removal centre on Sunday morning. He is thought to have killed himself. The police have been informed and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman are conducting an independent investigation into the death. Just a few weeks ago Carlington Spencer, 38, from Jamaica, died at Morton Hall. In January of this year Polish detainee Lukasz Debowski died there and in December 2016 Bal Ahmed Kabia from Sierra Leone died there. There have been 10 deaths in detention centres across the UK in the last 12 months.
Detainees expressed their shock at the latest death, saying that they believed the dead man to have been extremely vulnerable. One told the Guardian: “He was a nice lad, very quiet and kept himself to himself. But he had mental health problems and was on suicide watch.” He said that guards were supposed to be checking on the man every 30 minutes. He added that detainees became aware of the incident early on Sunday morning. “I heard an officer say: ‘Oh shit’ and then we were all taken out of our rooms and locked into the pool room for about an hour. They carried his body out through the back way in the hope that we wouldn’t see what was going on. We are all treated very badly here, like prisoners, although many of us have not committed any crime.”
Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, http://bit.ly/2BadgKr
