You Jung Han (top) and Kinsale Road Direct Provision Centre (above)
You Jung Han, 36, from South Korea, was found dead in the Kinsale Road direct provision centre on Tuesday night.
She was the mother of a six-year-old boy who is now in care.
Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Masi) write:
This is You Jung Han… the lady whose life was cut short by the shortfalls of the system of direct provision leaving behind a 6-year-old boy. How you may ask? The system pushed her to a depressed state and she took her own life by hanging herself.
She is not alone in that state, a lot of people are wallowing in depression in different centres. Do we sit down and continue to watch while more incidents like this reoccur? Or do we pick up our voice and raise awareness to what is really happening to people behind the scenes of DP.
Masi believes that what affects one affects all… asylum seekers voices needs to be heard. WE ARE HUMANS TOO. Our heart goes out to the little boy… what does the future hold for him now? May You rest in peace.
Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Facebook)
Meanwhile, following You’s death, RTÉ journalist Brian O’Connell spoke to residents of the Kinsale Road accommodation centre for an item on the Today with Sean O’Rourke show this morning.
One woman told Mr O’Connell:
“She lived in the same block as me, lovely lady, was very private and didn’t choose to mingle with people. It was obvious that she had issues and… chose to remain private about them.”
After she was asked if she felt You should have been in direct provision, she said:
“No, I don’t think she belonged in direct provision. Her circumstances should have been recognised and something should have been done for her as a matter of urgency.”
In a statement to Mr O’Connell, the Department of Justice said:
“Unfortunately this is the second time that such a tragic event has occurred since 2002.”
Samaritans: 116 123
Pieta House: 01 6010 000
Aware: 1890 303 302
Previously: Death Of A Mother
Listen back in full here
The system pushed no one. What people do when living under it is their decision. There is always the option to go home. No one is held prisoner.
Well it’s something when you can’t even hold off on this kind of thing for a week.
Sound man, Eamonn. I applaud you. We need many more people of your calibre – in Government – of course.
Scratch that – there is an over supply in Government – perhaps some quango or “think tank”?
You really are a cold, horrible person, Clancy.
Person wouldn’t be the word I’d use
+1000
why is a south korean person in the refugee system?
Luckily for the refugee system, she isn’t anymore!
That was pretty tasteless.
Oh absolutely, but sarcasm doesn’t come across well here sometimes. A woman is dead and all some people care about is what some foreigner was doing in Ireland anyway.
What was she doing here. The Do-gooder brigade out again. People like her should not be in direct provision, What ever she was running from in her country is not our problem. Especially when south Korea isn’t exactly, well, north korea
sorry new phone and lets of typos. south not * north.
Was wondering the same. South Korea is a stable democracy, booming economy and very pressured to achieve society.
Its not at war, is over 5,500 miles away. How on earth did this poor woman end up hear? And what happens to her son now?
It has actually been at war for 63 years now., but I doubt that is the reason.
People seek asylum in other countries for lots of reasons.
I am curious too, although I don’t think I will derive any satisfaction from the answer.
No, and I find this WELL WHAT WAS SHE DOING HERE ANYWAY a bit distasteful. The poor woman is dead and was found by her child. Picking over the bones of things we don’t know to satisfy ourselves that it was all her fault for making us put her in direct provision for an indeterminate amount of time and if she wasn’t an underhanded lying liar she’d be grand etc is just shocking.
+1
+20
Nonsense. Considering the media lie to us on a regular basis, pushing agendas that have nothing to do with news or truth, then it is always necessary to question and validate what you are being told.
Most of what appears in the media (including broadsheet) is unverifiable hearsay. Why a South Korean was mixed up in the state’s asylum system is a perfectly valid question.
So wrap you your PC policing and move along.
Wanting to know why she was seeking asylum does not imply wanting to blame her for her own situation. At all.
Actually, Jane, you can get off your horse cos I am genuinely curious as to the conditions that would grant a South Korean refugee status. Not something I’ve heard of before; it is as surprising to me as if she were French or Mexican.
It’s certainly not “this poor woman’s fault for making us put her in direct provision” etc etc etc. She deserved better and so did her son!!
yet the asylum seekers lobby group have no such qualms . This poor lady should have been processed quickly and maybe returned to Korea for the help she needed but people take their lives in all kinds of circumstances.
She was in the centre as her application for asylum was being processed. The legitimacy of the application is irrelevant to her death.
It is private information about a specific case so it’s actually none of your business what her personal reason was. If you want to find out what are the possible siutations in which a person might seek asylum then go and do some general research.
This woman already has had her privacy invaded enough.
there’s a lot of knowledge amongst the bs commentors, thought one of yiz would know the general legal reasons for south korean refugees in ireland, not this woman’s specific case. yeeeesh.
+1
It is very conservative though.
If she was a single mother it could have been very tough for her there and that could be her reason for coming here.
+1
…but is being a single mother in South Korea reason enough to get asylum here?
Perhaps the homeless in Dublin should seek asylum – they would be give food, board and pocket money.
Your humanity does you great credit, Cian.
Nobody said it was.
Nobody even said it was the reason she was looking for it.
You are arguing against her asylum application without even knowing her reason for applying for asylum, and instead you are just taking some comment someone made and using that.
Good grief, Cian! Anymore of those idiotic comments and you’ll have to start driving a taxi!
You have no right to know her private information and none of us know what her reasons were.
Given how awful direct provision is though it would seem unlikely that she would be there unless she felt it was her only option.
I wonder if you know how much they are given on weekly basis . €19 my dear do some research. If €19 is a lot of money to you then am defeated.
They could have a system like Ireland of old where the mother was locked up and the child sold given to a more deserving couple.
Was thinking the exact same thing.
South Korea is a modern well developed country. PPP adjusted GDP per capita of $33k compared with $46k in Ireland.
According to the story the other day, her son found her. That poor boy. I hope the care system is better to him than the asylum system was to his mother.
Yeah, I’d say the poor little lad must be utterly traumatized.
The care system? in ireland? Where have you been over the last 80yrs?
This country has a VERY poor record towards children in trouble.
+ 800 dead Tuam babies
hopefully he has family in Korea.
That is awful. Christ, the kid must be distraught
“…..The system pushed her to a depressed state…….”
Really? You’ve seen her medical file? You’re summarizing it for us here?
I thought you were all hot on data protection.
yeah, nothing to see here, move along please, everything is dandy.
jake38 while being very sarcastic is right.
It is not unreasonable to suggest that this lady could have been in a depressive state when she got here.
Asylum implies coming from a bad situation.
What is unreasonable is you suggesting that disagreeing with a sentence in a facebook post is an appeal to disregard the problems with direct provision, like you are doing.
There is a much higher percent of depression and suicide among those in direct provision. 90% report experiencing depression. If you’ve ever read or heard any interview with anyone who has been in direct provision you will see clearly are not happy. This is not coincidence.
It don’t stop….
Higher than what?
Who said they are happy?
You seem to be arguing that she undoubtedly killed herself because she was in direct provision. I mean in order to be disagreeing with anything I said, you would need to be saying that. And you have no basis to say that, because you know nothing of her case. Nothing at all.
I recognise that that poor woman was in the care of the state, now she is dead, the state is responsible.
Truly moronic logic, even for you.
Well prescisely. She was in direct provision therefore she hung herself? How about all the people who not in direct provision who hang themselves?
Depression is a terrible condition. People hang themselves.
Lobby groups and people like Bodger use their unfortunate deaths to suit a political agenda.
So come on – accuse me of being in poor taste.
If the political agenda is to highlight the problem of depression and rates of suicide in Direct Provision, then perhaps consider that it isn’t all that inappropriate.
I can’t see from the posting how long she was in the system for?
Heard an interview on rte radio this morning, they didn’t say either. The lady they were interviewing sounded crushed by the whole thing.
For “Unfortunately this is the second time that such a tragic event has occurred since 2002.” read “This is only the second time that such a tragic event has occurred since 2002.”
As a percentage of the number of people who’ve been in direct provision it is very high.
The Sate has a limited amount of money to spend. Which services do you think the money should be taken from to pay for better facilities at a Direct Provision Centre?
Middle management in the HSE.
Silly boy!
In the world of BS socialism there is an unlimited supply of money which be removed from the taxpayer.
The OCI.
plenty of money to spend on the banks
It’s not unreasonable to want to know why this young woman ended up in the asylum and direct provision system that, according to the statements above, did her such harm.
Should she have been in those systems? What we’re the alternatives?
On the one hand, we are saying that something should have been done for her, and on the other, we are told that being curious at how a citizen of a democratic and developed country like South Korea ended up in the system for years is a bad thing to do.
Who is “we”?
Me and the woman interviewed on RTE and quoted in the title of this post.
We both agree that something should have been done, inside or outside the system she found herself in, to help her to see that she had more options than to take her own life.
Arent some of these women in direct provision forced into prostitution? Werent the gates chain locked in Limerick and journalists barred from interviewing them? Didnt Fitzgerald make an emergency visit there? You can rest assured that money is misapprioprated in these centres.
I have to say, I’m surprised at the lack of sympathy for this poor woman. Anyone who chooses to end their own life prematurely, especially with a dependent child clearly has issues – a vulnerable person. I’m abhorred by some of the comments.
Welcome to the Broadsheet trolls who are given free rein.
Terrible.