Asylum seeker drowned near Dover as his brother arrives alive

An asylum seeker drowned off the coast of Dover on the same day his brother arrived in a dinghy.

Omar Ezildin Ali was living in Cardiff when he made the journey to Kent on 20^th August 2020.

Witnesses on the beach saw a man struggling in the water and shouting for help. The HM Coastguard team was alerted at exactly 11.41am and searched the waters for hours alongside the Royal National Lifeboat Institution with no success. The team, which also involved a search helicopter from Lydd, Kent Police, and the Port of Dover Police, stood down at 5.04pm. Mr. Ali’s body was discovered by a 17-year-old member of the public later that day at 6.15pm after he had washed up onto the shore.

Paramedics pronounced Mr. Ali dead at the scene at 6.57pm and were able to identify him ‘on the balance of probability’. The later inquiry revealed that Omar had gone into the sea fully clothed and had left his shoes in a rucksack. His wallet and identifying documentations were recovered, but no mobile phone was found.

Miss Katrina Hepburn, the area coroner for central and southeast Kent, concluded: “It is possible that he entered the water so that he could … be picked up as a new asylum seeker, and then reunite with his brother, who was also coming into the country on the same day.”

Omar Ezildin Ali had been living in the UK since June 2016. He arrived illegally via a lorry after having to flee his home in Sudan after taking part in a demonstration against the government.

An inquest into his death, which took place on 22^nd February, was held at County Hall in Maidstone. The inquest discovered that Ali had two previous asylum applications rejected. However, it was said that he was optimistic as he had another application review in September of last year. On the day Ali died, his brother was discovered trying to enter the UK and was subsequently detained.

Voice.Wales conducted an interview with one of Ali’s closest friends, Abdul. Abdul told of Ali’s mental health struggles over the past four years. He claimed that Ali was “finding life increasingly difficult under an inhumane asylum system that keeps people in a permanent state of mental limbo”. During the inquest, medical evidence was provided and read out, detailing the 24-year-old’s struggle with mental health, including his sleep deprivation as well as cannabis misuse.

Abdul commented: “[There is a] mental health crisis affecting so many asylum seekers, who are sometimes left for years not knowing what their future holds whilst claims are processed, often unsuccessfully.”

Coroner Hepburn commented: “I have to consider what his [Ali’s] intention was to travel to Dover. I am not satisfied that he intended to take his own life.”

A post-mortem in October concluded that his death was by drowning. On 22^nd February, Hepburn concluded that his death was a misadventure, meaning an individual carried out an act without intending to die.

Lauren Bramwell

@laurenrbramwell

Featured image courtesy of andrewslockwood50 via Pixabay. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.