Twosugars
17-09-2019, 08:06 PM
A teenage Eritrean refugee was the fourth from his friendship group to take his own life after arriving in the UK, an inquest hearing has revealed.
Mulubrhane Medhane Kfleyosus, 19, was found dead on 18 February 2019 in Milton Keynes. It is the fourth death in the space of 16 months among one friendship group of unaccompanied young male Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees.
Osman Ahmed Nur, 19, was found dead on 10 May 2018 in a communal area of a young people’s hostel in Camden, north London. Two of Osman Ahmed Nur’s friends took their lives in London just months before he did. Filmon Yemane had recently turned 18 when he killed himself in November 2017. Alexander Tekle, also 18, took his own life a fortnight later, in December, a year after he had arrived in the UK hidden in the back of a refrigerated lorry.
These tragic young deaths have highlighted the extreme challenges and traumas faced by young, unaccompanied asylum seekers forced to flee their countries and make hazardous journeys across continents alone. It illustrates how arrival in a safe country like the UK is not the end of their problems.
Helen Johnson, the head of the Refugee Council’s children services, said: “There is nothing more heartbreaking than learning that a young person has beaten the odds and survived unimaginable hardship in their home country, endured an utterly perilous journey to the UK, only to take their own life once finally safe here.”
The charity works with many unaccompanied child asylum seekers and refugees.
“Other issues are also at play here,” Johnson said. “Our asylum system sees people waiting months, even years for a decision on their asylum claim, leaving them in utter limbo, unable to move on. Many children are also forced to go through the trauma of having their age disputed, which can see them deprived of the vital services they desperately need as children and in accommodation entirely unsuitable to their age.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/17/teenage-refugee-was-fourth-of-friendship-group-to-kill-himself
Mulubrhane Medhane Kfleyosus, 19, was found dead on 18 February 2019 in Milton Keynes. It is the fourth death in the space of 16 months among one friendship group of unaccompanied young male Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees.
Osman Ahmed Nur, 19, was found dead on 10 May 2018 in a communal area of a young people’s hostel in Camden, north London. Two of Osman Ahmed Nur’s friends took their lives in London just months before he did. Filmon Yemane had recently turned 18 when he killed himself in November 2017. Alexander Tekle, also 18, took his own life a fortnight later, in December, a year after he had arrived in the UK hidden in the back of a refrigerated lorry.
These tragic young deaths have highlighted the extreme challenges and traumas faced by young, unaccompanied asylum seekers forced to flee their countries and make hazardous journeys across continents alone. It illustrates how arrival in a safe country like the UK is not the end of their problems.
Helen Johnson, the head of the Refugee Council’s children services, said: “There is nothing more heartbreaking than learning that a young person has beaten the odds and survived unimaginable hardship in their home country, endured an utterly perilous journey to the UK, only to take their own life once finally safe here.”
The charity works with many unaccompanied child asylum seekers and refugees.
“Other issues are also at play here,” Johnson said. “Our asylum system sees people waiting months, even years for a decision on their asylum claim, leaving them in utter limbo, unable to move on. Many children are also forced to go through the trauma of having their age disputed, which can see them deprived of the vital services they desperately need as children and in accommodation entirely unsuitable to their age.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/17/teenage-refugee-was-fourth-of-friendship-group-to-kill-himself