Causes Unknown

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Mags Gargan, in The Irish Catholic, reports:

The Government does not know the cause of death of the majority of the asylum seekers who have died in State care in the last 10 years.

“While two people are recorded as dying as a result of suicide and one resident was stabbed to death, the “suspected cause of death” of over one third of the people who have died while resident in the direct provision accommodation system is unknown.

In response to a Freedom of Information request from The Irish Catholic, the Department of Justice released figures which show that 44 people have died in the direct provision system between 2007 and 2017, including three stillborn babies and one “neonatal death”.

In 15 of the cases the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) record the suspected cause of death as “unknown” or simply “died”.

Among those listed as unknown was a 41-year-old man who was “found in room by roommate” in 2008, a 53-year-old man who was “found dead in his bed at 9am” by his roommate in 2012, a 35-year-old man “found unconscious in room and died in hospital” in 2014 and another man in 2015 “found unconscious in room and died in hospital”.

Cause of one in three deaths in direct provision system is unknown (The Irish Catholic)

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4 thoughts on “Causes Unknown

  1. bisted

    …so Mags…the Irish catholic is unhappy that facilities operated for profit by private interests…financed by the Government…supposedly caring for vulnerable people…may not be giving adequate explanations of deaths and disappearances of people in their care…imagine…aren’t we lucky to have people like you Mags to doggedly pursue this…

  2. Barry the Hatchet

    I don’t see how the Reception and Integration Agency (what a name) can possibly justify not seeking this information on the grounds that people are outside their “remit” once they go to hospital / die. The prison service can’t do that.

    Does anyone even bother investigating the deaths? The European Court of Human Rights has said that the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention requires that there be an investigation into a death in custody. Does Direct Provision not constitute custody? It certainly has all the features of an open prison.

  3. wearnicehats

    I think that 55000 people have been in DP since 1998 so I’m guessing maybe 30k since 2007? 44 deaths wouldn’t be a shocking percentage.

    I do find The Irish Catholic giving out about unexplained and undocumented deaths a tad ironic though….

  4. postmanpat

    I share the Catholics anger. 44 seems a little low. Come on Direct Provision Centre! If the Catholics were running this place they would have ten times that number of deaths and made one hundred times more profit by using these people in unpaid work houses. Selling some of there babies to rich yanks would make a tidy side profit too. This is what happens when you separate church from state. The government hasn’t a clue how to exploit unfortunate people for profit. Spare a thought for the poor catholic priests too. Every day the church isn’t allowed to run this place is another day a priest has to fantasies about raping boys instead of acting it out in real life. We used to take care of priests sexual urges in this country, now we separate them from visiting children. What a waste. Its a disgrace. It’s no wonder there are hardly any new priests coming out of Maynooth. This country used to be a gold mine for abusing kids, now , if a priest or nun wants to interferer with a kid they have to fly all the way out to Sudan or South America. It wouldn’t have happened in de Valera’s day. Maybe pope Francis will rally the people to blindly hand power back to the church just like the good old days when he visits next year.

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