Nigerian Man Dies in Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC)

An investigation has been launched after a man died at a detention centre next to Heathrow airport. Oscar Okwurime, from Nigeria, died at Harmondsworth on Thursday. The cause of death is not yet known. The Home Office said the police, the coroner and the prisons and probation ombudsman were investigating. Harmondsworth, together with its neighbour Colnbrook, is the biggest detention centre in Europe. Friends on Okwurime’s wing said he had received a ticket for a charter flight to Nigeria due to take off next Tuesday. “He was terrified when he received the ticket and was so stressed about it,” said one detainee.

Others said tensions were running high at the centre and there was enormous distress about Okwurime’s death and apprehension about the impending charter flight. Detainees said they were particularly fearful about the possibility of being restrained on the flight. The Guardian has revealed that hundreds of people have been forcibly removed from the UK in restraints in 2018-19. Detainees staged a protest about the death at 10am on Friday and passed photos of the demonstration to the Guardian. On a bedsheet used as a banner, detainees wrote “RIP Oscar Okwurime”.

Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://is.gd/Sy2gli