Last year witnessed an unprecedented number of asylum seeker deaths while under Home Office care, with figures reaching a record high, as revealed by a Guardian investigation.
In 2024, 51 individuals died in accommodation provided by the Home Office, marking an increase from 40 the previous year and a dramatic rise from just four deaths in 2019.
Following a freedom of information request, the Home Office initially reported only 30 deaths, but later issued an apology after acknowledging an undercount of 21 additional fatalities.
An official from the Home Office’s freedom of information team admitted the mistake, stating, “I would like to apologise for this error,” which they attributed to incomplete data.
Deborah Coles, Director of Inquest, a charity advocating for bereaved families, criticized the Home Office for its “shocking lack of scrutiny and accountability,” and questioned whether the discrepancy in reported deaths was due to deliberate concealment or mere incompetence.
The deaths varied in cause, with some due to illness or natural causes, while others, including suspected suicides, underline the severe impact of the UK’s asylum system on vulnerable individuals.
Notably, an Iranian man was found deceased a month after his death in a shared house in Colchester, Essex, raising concerns about the oversight of asylum seeker welfare.
Unlike the Ministry of Justice, which publishes data on prisoner deaths, the Home Office does not regularly release information about the deaths of migrants in its care.
This has led to calls from human rights and refugee organizations for greater transparency. The cross-party home affairs select committee is currently investigating government accommodation for asylum seekers, with the charity Asylum Matters urging the inquiry to demand more openness.
Of the initially reported 30 deaths, nearly a third were attributed to suspected suicide, with a similar number from undetermined causes that could also include suicide. Only eight were definitively linked to illness or natural causes.
The Home Office has been criticized for not disclosing whether there were delays in discovering some of the deceased, such as the Iranian man whose body lay undiscovered for a month.
This issue has escalated as asylum applications have doubled over the past five years, during which deaths among asylum seekers have increased twelvefold.
Prominent cases include Leonard Farruku, who died in a suspected suicide on the Bibby Stockholm barge, Claudia Kambanza from Namibia who was stabbed to death in Hull, and Amir Safi, a young Afghan classified as an adult by the Home Office, who died in a road traffic accident.
Maddie Harris from Humans for Rights Network stressed the urgent need for the Home Office to disclose exact figures on deaths within the asylum system and enhance transparency to address the current deficiencies.
Home Office sources indicated that these deaths are routinely investigated by statutory partners, including the police and coroner, to determine the circumstances, with expectations that service providers conduct regular welfare checks and report any concerns.
