Suicide leap trio faced deportation

Three asylum seekers who died after they plunged from a high-rise block of flats are believed to have been a mother, father and son, a charity said last night.

The bodies of two men and a woman were found at the bottom of a 31-storey block in Petershill Drive, Springburn, Glasgow, on Sunday.

Their deaths are not being treated as suspicious.

Scotland-based charity Positive Action in Housing, which called for an inquiry into the deaths, said the three had their applications to stay in the UK rejected.

Robina Qureshi, director of the Scotland-based charity Positive Action in Housing, said the three are believed to be originally from the former Soviet Union.

She said: “We know their asylum application had been refused and were facing imminent destitution under the asylum rules.

“The son was in his 20s and the mother was in her 40s.

“We believe that there should be a public inquiry into these deaths, and particularly to do with the impact that the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) has on the lives of asylum seekers who have lived here for years but live in the fear of removal.

“We want to know what role the UKBA played. We ask that the UKBA issue an immediate statement. In particular, we want to know did the UKBA recently communicate with the three suicide victims over their asylum case? Were UKBA removal officials knocking at the door of the three suicide victims at 63 Petershill Drive, Springburn on Sunday morning when the suicides took place?

“The immediate neighbour has informed us that she heard the sound of children running about in the flat the previous week, then on Saturday evening, a few hours before the suicide, the woman and two men were seen taking bags out of the flat.”

A spokeswoman for the UKBA said: “It is an ongoing police investigation and we won’t be making any comment at the moment.”

The three people who died have yet to be named.

Their 51-year-old neighbour said they had lived there for two months but she did not know them.

Another resident, Elaine Sandford, 40, said she believed the three faced deportation. She added: “I think they had a letter through the door that said they were coming back for them.”

Last night, Glasgow North East Labour MP Willie Bain revealed he had helped the family, who he understood had lived in Canada before coming to the UK.

He said: “Although the victims of this tragic incident have not been named, I believe I know who they are and had been assisting their case. They had attended my surgeries and I had provided representations on their behalf.

“It is my understanding that no removal order had been served, but that if one had been, they would have been removed to Canada because that is the country where they were living lawfully before travelling to the UK.

“People locally are still in shock but it is important that the authorities provide clarity on what has happened.

“It is a very sad case.”

Earlier, Mr Bain called for improvements in the way asylum cases are processed.

It is believed the victims fell from the 15th floor of Block 63 at the Red Road flats, which are earmarked for demolition and house asylum seekers and refugees. In recent years some flats have housed people from Kosovo, Africa, Asia, the former Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq.

The building is owned by Glasgow Housing Association, which lets the majority of flats in it to the YMCA.