From top: The late Sylva Tukula; Cameron Keighron
“We still have a lot of questions and a lot of answers that we need to find out and we’re hoping that over the next couple of days, or weeks, that we’ll get those answers.
“…How systems like these are put in place and how groups and relevant persons fall through the cracks?
“No one should have to go through what we went through.
“No one should ever have to feel live we’ve felt over the last couple of days and to know that someone that they were so close to was buried by themselves without any sort of appropriate arrangement, and without anyone present, to mark the end of their life and to celebrate it…
“We’re calling for an investigation into these systems and to ensure that the failures that happened this time aren’t repeated and that provisions are put in place to protect the dignity of people, irrespective of their status in this country.”
Cameron Keighron, chairperson of the Amach LGBT charity in Galway, speaking on RTÉ One’s Morning Ireland this morning about the late Sylva Tukula.
Sylva, from Cameroon and who identified as a transwoman, was living in the men-only Great Western House Direct Provision centre in Galway when she died last August.
She was subsequently buried unbeknownst to her friends on May 9 in a HSE-owned plot at the Bohermore cemetery – despite her friends being told they would be informed of her burial arrangements.
Listen back in full here
Yesterday: ‘We Have Still Yet To Know The Actual Cause Of Death’