The life and death of an asylum-seeker

How British policy drove an ambitious, young Afghan to kill himself in a Glasgow high-rise

Yesterday, Zekria Ghulm Salem Mohammed might have been quenching his remarkable thirst for knowledge in his local library in Glasgow - just as he had done most days for the last four years.

Y esterday, Zekria Ghulm Salem Mohammed might have been quenching his remarkable thirst for knowledge in his local library in Glasgow - just as he had done most days for the last four years.

Instead, his broken, emaciated body was being laid to rest more than 3,500 miles away, in the country he had fled to avoid the Taliban's persecution, only to die, alone and desperate, in a top-floor council flat of a tower block in one of Scotland's poorest areas.

Brought up in a wealthy family in Kabul - his father works for the United Nations in Afghanistan; his mother is involved in the Red Cross; and his brother is a doctor - the fiercely independent young man always seemed destined for a successful career in public service. He too always wanted to help others.

But, in 2000, like so many others, his moderate political views meant he fell foul of the Taliban regime, and he was forced to abandon the University of Kabul where he was in the third year of his studies to become a dentist. He fled Afghanistan, in fear of his life.

Zekria believed Britain would best offer him the sanctuary he needed. He already had family in Southampton, and knew that the Home Office had ceased deportations to Afghanistan several years earlier because of its political and social instability. In return, he wanted to contribute. He planned to graduate, and then to work in the community. And so began his gruelling journey.

After escaping from Afghanistan across the border into Uzbekistan, he made his way - on foot and in the back of lorries - to Hungary. There, he was arrested as an illegal immigrant, and detained for two months.

He managed to get out of the country, made his way to France and the notorious Sangatte refugee camp near Calais. For 16 weeks, he plotted the final part of his escape to a better life.

When he finally arrived in Britain and applied for asylum, he was almost immediately "dispersed" to Glasgow under Home Office rules - along with up to 8,000 other refugees now living in the city. For the last four years, he lived in a flat on the 28th floor of a tower block in Bluevale Street, Dennistoun, provided for him by the National Asylum Support Service.

At first, the optimistic young man with the "pleasant smile and polite manner" was confident that the authorities would allow him to repay their hospitality as a hard-working, honest citizen.

Scotland is in desperate need of new blood. A decreasing, ageing population - allied to a shortage of skilled workers - is a creating a demographic time bomb threatening the nation's economy, and taking the number of its people below the five million mark within five years. Jack McConnell, Scotland's First Minister, is keen to attract up to 8,000 "educated'' immigrants a year.

With more than half the adult population in Scotland, and a third of children, unable to get NHS dental cover, dentists are among those most keenly sought. Friends say that gave Zekria great hope, but, as the weeks passed into months and then into years, the 27-year-old became increasingly despondent.

As someone who had taken the legal route and applied for asylum, instead of disappearing and working illegally, he was forbidden to work or study. He had instead to rely on benefits, when he would have preferred to have made his own way. "He was a good man who wanted to work and make a new life," said a neighbour too afraid to give his name in case it affected his own asylum application. "He didn't want charity or somebody to look after him. He wanted to complete his studies as a dentist and be of some use to the community."

Friends say that the introverted student's frustration was compounded by the general feeling of resentment many asylum seekers face from local people.

Although Dennistoun in Glasgow's East End is not as bad as some other areas such as Sighthill, Castlemilk or Pollokshaws for racial harassment, Zekria felt deeply the anti-asylum seeker culture which pervades some parts of Glasgow, with racist abuse and discrimination common-place.

Since Glasgow became the "asylum capital of Britain" under the Home Office dispersal programme - it has twice as many per head of population than London - Strathclyde Police has recorded huge increases in racist incidents. There were two racist murders and five attempted murders in the city last year, and 28 per cent of ethnic minority families claim to have suffered racial harassment in the last 12 months.

"His life was nothing in Glasgow," said his close friend Ali Mohammed, one of a number of Iranian asylum-seekers who befriended Zekria, who tended not to mix with the local Afghan community. "He couldn't understand why he was considered so low. Every day was the same. There were threatening letters from the Home Office, and racial abuse from gangs of teenagers in the street."

Zekria's will to live began to crack when the Government announced in May 2003 that, following the fall of the Taliban, deportations of refused asylum-seekers from Afghanistan would resume.

Although David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, announced last October that more than 15,000 families could stay in Britain if they had been seeking asylum for more than three years, Zekria, as a single man, was excluded, even though he had been here almost four years by then.

After exhausting all legal attempts to stay in Britain, he was told that he would have to leave his flat and his £38-a-week allowance for food and other essentials was stopped. Tokens from the National Asylum Support Service which should have provided him with food failed to arrive.

'He was too proud to beg and scavenge for food in the bins. But he was starving," said Dr Amir Mohammed, 28, another Iranian friend, who claimed he had to trick Zekria into taking food so that he would not feel like he was begging. "He was ashamed and broken. He felt there was no hope left.''

On 18 May, just days after being told he would be evicted from his flat and sent back to Afghanistan, Zekria smashed a glass panel above a door. He looped a rope around it. And then, he hanged himself.

"It was such a waste of a talented young life," said Mohammed Asif, a friend of Zekria and director of the Scottish Afghan Society. "He was a very quiet guy who didn't have much to do with the rest of the Afghan community here. He mixed only with a couple of people but was well behaved and spent most of his time at the local library reading because he wasn't allowed to work.

"He was a very proud man who did not want to beg for food and he wouldn't break the law to work illegally. A lot of people, if they didn't have any money to buy food and were starving to death, would have worked illegally but he was too honest."

Mr Asif, who called on the Government to halt deportations, said Zekria had been frightened of returning to Afghanistan because some of the Mujahadeen wanted to prosecute him.

Mr Asif explained: "Men and women are being forcibly removed from the UK back to Afghanistan under the pretext that it is safe for us to go back. In fact, Afghanistan has never been more unstable or dangerous.

"After the defeat of the Taliban, we were promised democracy and human rights, but all that happened was that the Americans and British replaced one set of warlords with another. It may be difficult for the Home Office to remember - and it is certainly difficult for us to forget - that these are the same warlords who killed 55,000 innocent Afghans between 1992 and 1996."

Zekria's suicide, believed to be the third by asylum seekers in Scotland within the last 12 months, has prompted refugee groups to demand a full inquiry.

Robina Qureshi, director of the lobby group Positive Action in Housing, said: "We are worried that there could be an increase in attempted suicides among asylum-seekers because of the torture imposed on them by the Home Secretary's policy.

"People are coming into the office absolutely destitute and under threat of deportation, and saying that they would rather kill themselves here than go back to their countries and face imprisonment, torture or death. We want a full inquiry.''

That, though, is too late for Zekria, whose body was flown to Islamabad on Thursday evening and then on to Kabul by a private plane, chartered by his family, for his funeral.

Mr Asif explained: "His family hadn't seen him for such a long time and they wanted him home whatever the cost. They can't understand how he could escape the trouble in Afghanistan and die like this in Britain."