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An asylum seeker who died onboard the Bibby Stockholm was “tricked” into going to the barge after “point blank” refusing, an inquest has heard.
Leonard Farruku, 27, from Albania, was found unresponsive in a shower cubicle onboard the accommodation vessel at Portland Port, Dorset, on 12 December 2023.
On Monday, the inquest in Bournemouth also heard from a senior Home Office official that “perhaps” an email from their contractor raising urgent concerns about Farruku in the weeks before he died should have been followed up.
Farruku was previously accommodated at the Esplanade Hotel in Paignton, Devon, and began to show disturbed behaviour in July 2023.
Ashley Rangasamy,a community worker at Torbay Community Trust, told the hearing he had witnessed Farruku being violent in the hotel lobby when he turned over a table and that Farruku had two modes, “either fine or very angry”.
Rangasamy said Farruku was “distraught” about the idea of being taken to the barge. “He was just angry and sad,” he said.
Rangasamy told the hearing that on 3 November 2023, the day Farruku was being transferred to the barge, he received a message that he had “point blank” refused to go and so he went to the hotel to see what was happening.
He said: “When I got there, Farruku was in the car and leaving and the staff were stood on the steps, and I said: ‘I thought he wasn’t going?’”
Rangasamy said he was told that Farruku had been told he was not going to the barge after all and was going to a hotel in Swindon instead, although this was not the case.
“They tricked him,” Rangasamy said.
He added that he kept in contact with other residents who were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, who said they were concerned after Farruku’s behaviour on the barge.
Tim Rymer, who was at the time of Farruku’s death the Home Office’s deputy director for adult and family accommodation, told the inquest it was the first time the department had used a barge in a port setting.
The inquest previously heard that an email was sent to the Home Office raising urgent concerns by Nia Dowd, the safeguarding team leader for Clearsprings, on 3 November, about Farruku’s poor mental health.
Dowd said Home Office officials did not respond to this email. When asked if it should haver been followed up Rymer replied: “Perhaps.”
“I understand that an email was received, no action as such was taken. My understanding is that information was received and wasn’t followed up on.
“I do understand whoever received that did nothing. Having looked at this now I may well have asked the team to make further inquiries but this didn’t happen. At the time the team didn’t take any further action.”
He added that Home Office caseworkers did not have access to all the information about Farruku and that it could not be the case that any concern raised would lead to someone not being taken to the barge.
“The barge was not a place that was not suitable to accommodate someone with mental health conditions,” said Rymer.
The inquest continues.
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email [email protected]. You can contact the mental health charity Mind by calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting mind.org.uk
