Another Pakistani immigrant dies in detention

LONDON: A Pakistani immigrant from Lahore was found dead at the Penine Detention in Manchester on Friday night in highly suspicious circumstances.
The deceased Pakistani national, whose name has yet to be released by the detention centre, was put on fast-track removal to Pakistan and he was refusing to leave the centre because he feared police torture and detention in Pakistan but the UK Border Agency (UKBA) refused to listen to his pleas for sanctuary in Britain.
More than a dozen Pakistanis were detained at the Penine holding facility, located near Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2, but most of them were immediately removed and sent to a detention centre in Dongavale, Galsgow.
An inmate, who is still at the Penine detention centre, told The News that the 40-year-old immigrant belonged to Lahore and his flight was booked for Pakistan. “He didn’t want to go back. He complained to us that the detention staff has tortured him. He was complaining about heart problems but the detention centre didn’t take care of him and continued to put him under extreme stress. It was clear that he (the Pakistani immigrant) will not go voluntarily. It was clear that he will either collapse or take his own life.”
When approached by The News to confirm the death of Pakistani national at its centre, a spokesperson at the Penine facility first shut the phone down and then asked this correspondent to contact a press officer who said that the Penine centre will provide update “in due course”.
Waqar Arshad, 29, a Pakistani national who is now detained in Glasgow but has spent time at the Penine detention centre, told The News over phone that “the situation is miserable for immigrants in general but Pakistani immigrants in special are meted out the worst kind of treatment”.
“There’s no one to speak for us. Pakistani consulates are here to get us victimised further. UK immigrations authorities know our government is weak and will not stand up for our rights. I am so fed up that after spending 9 years in Britain, I approached the Home Office on 17th July and expressed my willingness to leave immediately for Pakistan, spending my own money on ticket but I am being kept in detention.”
Arshad said that on Friday night, an Iranian asylum seeker tried to hang himself with a rope. “Immigrants are frustrated at how they are treated without any regard to their human rights.”
The death of 40-year-old Pakistani follows the death of another Pakistani immigrant who was treated extremely badly at the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport. Khalid Shahzad, 52, cut his wrist but the centre failed to attend him for 30 minutes. He died on 30th March, a few hours after being released from Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre where he was awaiting his deportation to Pakistan. Shahzad was so ill that doctors had declared him unfit for travel and detention. He was released in a frail condition but the authorities didn’t help him reach Manchester via London’s Euston Station. He died on the train alone and it was said that suffered cardiac problems and had an artificial heart valve fitted prior to his arrest.