Home Office ‘missed chances’ to assess suicidal asylum seeker

CORONER has ruled the Home Office “missed opportunities” to assess the mental health of an asylum seeker before he was moved on to the Bibby Stockholm where he took his own life.

- BEN MITCHELL

Leonard Farruku, inset, was found unresponsive in the en-suite shower of his room on board the accommodation vessel at Portland Port, Dorset, on December 12, 2023.

An inquest in Bournemouth was told that a postmortem examination found that the 27-year-old died as a result of compression to the neck and suspension by ligature.

His sisters Marsida Keci and Jola Dushku have questioned how their brother, who they said had struggled with his mental health since the death of their parents, was allowed to be moved to the Bibby Stockholm on November 3 2023.

The inquest heard that Mr Farruku was previously accommodated at the Esplanade Hotel in Paignton, Devon, and began to show aggressive behaviour in July 2023.

Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin said that the Home Office had criteria that any resident who had more than primary health care needs, either medical or around mental health, should not be accommodated on the barge because of its remote location at Portland Port in West Dorset.