Another asylum-seeker dies in detention
01 January 1991
Another asylum-seeker dies in detention
artdoc February=1992
Amasase Lumumba, the great-nephew of Patrice Lumumba, the first
Prime Minister of an independent Zaire, died at the age of 32 in
Pentonville prison of a heart attack on 10 October after being
restrained by prison officers. Mr Lumumba had arrived from
France on false papers on 1 September 1991, and was arrested in
Catford, South London, on 15 September on suspicion of theft of
a bicycle and assaulting children. He was passed to the
immigration service without being charged, and had been in
Pentonville since 20 September. He had been in the prison
hospital for psychiatric attention for symptoms of confusion and
anger, and was returning there for further treatment when he
allegedly attempted to break free and was restrained by prison
officers. He died of a choking fit. During the Gulf War, the
International Red Cross protested at the use of Pentonville
prison to house immigration prisoners and asylum-seekers. But
Pentonville, and other prisons, are still being used, in addition
to the immigration detention centres at Heathrow, Harmondsworth,
Gatwick, Dover and Haslar. In 1990 over 9000 people were detained
under the Immigration Act, although figures for asylum-seekers
are not available separately, according to a written answer on
14 October (Hansard 14 October 1991, col. 19-20)
Statewatch, Volume 2 no 1, January/February 1992