Asylum seeker claims wife died because she could not eat hostel food

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Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

An asylum seeker has claimed his wife starved to death because she could not eat the food served at a hostel in Galway.

Gardaí have launched an investigation into claims by Bashiru Mohammed Dauda (30) that his 27-year-old wife Brenda Kwesikazi Mohammed died of malnutrition.

The South African's body was discovered in a room at the Salthill hostel on 6 January. Her weight fell from 14 stone to about six stone in just over a year.

Her Nigerian husband Bashiru Mohammed Dauda says he begged the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) to move his family to self-catering accommodation because his wife could not eat the food prepared at the hostel in Salthill.

The couple have a two-year-old daughter and Bashiru Mohammed Dauda says that the RIA is responsible for his wife's death.

Gardaí say they are carrying out a full investigation on behalf of the Galway West Coroner, Dr Ciaran McLoughlin.

An inquest is expected to be held within a matter of months.

"If they had given her a place where we could cook, she would be alive today. She died of malnutrition," said Bashiru Mohammed Dauda.

His wife pretended to be from Zimbabwe in order to increase her chances of staying in Ireland and she adopted the name, Nomvula Khanyile.

She met and married Nigerian Bahiru Mohammed Dauda despite opposition from her family to marrying a Nigerian. Bahiru claimed there were threats to his life and the couple planned to get away.

Brenda, already pregnant with her daughter Liyah, arrived in Ireland in September 2004. Bashiru stayed on to finish his military service. Brenda was sent by the RIA to the Eglinton Hotel in Galway and in January 2005 she gave birth to Liyah.

Bashiru arrived in Ireland in February 2006 but was shocked to discover his wife had dropped from a size 14 to a size 6. She told him she had been unable to eat the food in the hostel since she had given birth. She had been diagnosed with post-natal depression and was receiving treatment from the health services.

Bashiru also sought asylum and was placed in a hostel in Dublin. Following repeated requests, Bashiru was re-united with his wife and daughter in Galway in August last year.

As her health continued to deteriorate, Brenda wrote a letter, which she intended to send to the RIA. In the letter she says she is desperate.

"My present health condition is so lean and so terrible that I am being avoided by other colleagues as somebody with a terrible sickness. Please, do something before I die," she pleads in the letter.

On December 15 they were offered self-catering accommodation in Mosney, Co. Meath. But, Bashiru claims, less than a week later the offer was withdrawn.

Bashiru says he went to Dublin to meet a friend from South Africa. He spoke to his wife the following day and, realising she was unwell, he returned home.

He could not gain entrance to the room in which they were living at the hostel in Salthill until his little daughter eventually opened it. The child was naked and his wife was dead.

A statement from the Reception and Integration Agency pointed out that an offer to move the family to alternative accommodation had been made shortly before her death but this had not been accepted. The statement stressed that great efforts were made to meet the dietary needs of residents.

The statement went into considerable detail outlining the food requirements -- including meal choices -- to be met by all contractors providing accommodation.

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