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IRR > 2004 > September

Indefinite detention creates a 'suicide culture'

By Harmit Athwal

7 September 2004, 3:00pm

A Scottish NGO is calling on Amnesty International and the UNHCR to investigate the 'suicide culture' at Dungavel detention centre.

Dungavel detention centre in Scotland, one of three immigration detention centres to detain children, has now been open for three years. To mark those years, Positive Action in Housing (PAIH), a Glasgow-based charity, has produced a dossier on detentions and conditions at Dungavel.

The dossier is particularly important because of the suicide of 23-year-old Vietnamese man Tung Wang at the prison. Tung Wang was one of hundreds of asylum seekers transferred from Harmondsworth detention centre in the aftermath of a disturbance in July 2004. Ironically, the trigger for the disturbance at Harmondsworth was another suicide - that of a 31-year-old Ukrainian man - found hanged in the early hours of 19 July 2004.

Criticisms

PAIH is critical of the length of time asylum seekers are detained and the psychological impact of such undetermined length of detention. The group finds that 'Dungavel Removal Centre cannot cope with the suicide culture it has created, particularly amongst long-term detainees. There is a definite pattern emerging of asylum seekers being held for long, indefinite periods up to two years, and then being transferred to prison when their spirits break.' The group is calling on Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to investigate their allegations.

Names not numbers

We publish below extracts from the dossier which reveal, through the cases, the misery that is Dungavel.

• Andre Aliev, a Russian asylum seeker detained for almost 19 months since January 2003. In early August 2004, he was taken to Greenock Prison from Dungavel after becoming depressed. He sewed up his lips and went on hunger strike in protest at his continued imprisonment and length of detention.
• Vassel Gabbes, a Palestinian man who was held at Greenock Prison with Andre Aliev and who also went on hunger strike in protest at his imprisonment and length of detention. On 1 September 2004 he was transferred to the newly opened 'High security' Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre in Middlesex.
• John Oguchuckwu and Mustafa Mohammed, both held at Greenock prison. John Oguchuckwu is a 27-year-old student priest from Nigeria. He was detained in Dungavel for eight months and sent to Greenock after alerting the press to the suicide of Vietnamese man Tung Wang at Dungavel. John has also become depressed and was on suicide watch for a time. John shares his cell with a Palestinian man, Mustafa Mohammed, whom he has befriended. Mustafa was detained at Dungavel for six months and then sent to Greenock where he has been for five months. He is only 20-years-old and is very confused and upset. He speaks little English.
• Aven Hung, a 31-year-old Chinese asylum seeker, is currently being detained in Dungavel where he has already been for 25 months.
• Tung Wang, was a 23-year-old Vietnamese asylum seeker. He had been detained for 12 months and 'simply gave up hope of ever being released' when he was found hanged inside a toilet at Dungavel on 23 July 2004.
• Sarah Richards, a South African woman detained in Dungavel was then transferred to Cornton Vale prison in August 2004 after speaking to the press about the suicide of Tung Wang. (For further details see Names not numbers).

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© Institute of Race Relations 2004