In memory of Osman Rasul Mohammed
A | 26.07.2012 10:57 | Migration | World
This letter was written by a friend of Osman Rasul Mohammed, an Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker who plunged to his death from a seven storey towerblock in Nottingham two years ago. He had spent nearly ten years fighting for asylum after repeated refusals of his claim. Denied the right to work or access state benefits, he was living on the street off £20 a month and food parcels supplied by a charity.
To Osman Rasul Mohammed
Today is two years since you died Osman. Today is two years you have not been with us anymore. It is strange to see that when supposedly you jumped from a 7th floor building, how many newspapers and organizations reported and spoke about your death. Today two years later, no one seems to speak about you anymore. It might be that they do not care about you anymore. You are no news for the newspapers or organisations. Because you are already dead.
I am here to give you a voice. To speak loudly to others about what happened to you because I do want your death to value for something. I want your death to be useful for others. You died after almost 10 years
waiting to become legal in this country. You died in the most horrible way no one could really face.
On the 25 July 2010, at more or less 5pm, you went up to a building on the 7th floor and after two hours, you died. The first report was that you had killed yourself. And the final inquest said that it was not clear if you had jumped or it had been an accident. A witness had claimed that she saw you trying to hold into something when you were falling.
In this inquest, it came out that since the first moment you were in that building, you had a group of people shouting at you from the street to jump down. It seems that this group of people shouted at you for most of
the two hours.
The final result from the inquest said that it was not clear if you died by accident or intentionally but it was a pity that this group of people had not been arrested for wanting you to die.
I am not the person to decide what this group of people should face. But I tell you something Osman, even if your death is not news anymore, I still remember you and I still remember your struggle for being able to have a
decent life in the UK. The people responsible for your death are not the people who shouted at you but the those who declined you an opportunity to provide you with a life in the UK in the first place. I wish you were
here with all of us.
You were from Kurdistan/Iraq and you were so scared of being deported back! You were so scared of what your life had become. I still remember you telling me about your fears of a possible deportation and how you
spoke to me about the future you were expecting to have with your two children and now, all your dreams are gone. You were telling me about your fears and dreams just 24 hours before you died. When you died you were
just 27 years old. So young.
Today after two years of your death I still remember you. And I want others to remember you and to make sure that no one forgets the struggle people like you go through.
To you Osman and to all the people who are in the same struggle you were in. Because I do hope your death teaches us something and it is not just a sensationalist news story when someone dies.
A.
Background:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-15188454
http://www.irr.org.uk/news/nottingham-asylum-seeker-jumps-to-his-death/
Today is two years since you died Osman. Today is two years you have not been with us anymore. It is strange to see that when supposedly you jumped from a 7th floor building, how many newspapers and organizations reported and spoke about your death. Today two years later, no one seems to speak about you anymore. It might be that they do not care about you anymore. You are no news for the newspapers or organisations. Because you are already dead.
I am here to give you a voice. To speak loudly to others about what happened to you because I do want your death to value for something. I want your death to be useful for others. You died after almost 10 years
waiting to become legal in this country. You died in the most horrible way no one could really face.
On the 25 July 2010, at more or less 5pm, you went up to a building on the 7th floor and after two hours, you died. The first report was that you had killed yourself. And the final inquest said that it was not clear if you had jumped or it had been an accident. A witness had claimed that she saw you trying to hold into something when you were falling.
In this inquest, it came out that since the first moment you were in that building, you had a group of people shouting at you from the street to jump down. It seems that this group of people shouted at you for most of
the two hours.
The final result from the inquest said that it was not clear if you died by accident or intentionally but it was a pity that this group of people had not been arrested for wanting you to die.
I am not the person to decide what this group of people should face. But I tell you something Osman, even if your death is not news anymore, I still remember you and I still remember your struggle for being able to have a
decent life in the UK. The people responsible for your death are not the people who shouted at you but the those who declined you an opportunity to provide you with a life in the UK in the first place. I wish you were
here with all of us.
You were from Kurdistan/Iraq and you were so scared of being deported back! You were so scared of what your life had become. I still remember you telling me about your fears of a possible deportation and how you
spoke to me about the future you were expecting to have with your two children and now, all your dreams are gone. You were telling me about your fears and dreams just 24 hours before you died. When you died you were
just 27 years old. So young.
Today after two years of your death I still remember you. And I want others to remember you and to make sure that no one forgets the struggle people like you go through.
To you Osman and to all the people who are in the same struggle you were in. Because I do hope your death teaches us something and it is not just a sensationalist news story when someone dies.
A.
Background:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-15188454 http://www.irr.org.uk/news/nottingham-asylum-seeker-jumps-to-his-death/
A