London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025

Asylum seeker inquest: Immigration officers may have had role in death

Asylum seeker inquest: Immigration officers may have had role in death

Immigration officers' actions could have contributed to the death of an asylum seeker in Newport, an inquest jury has concluded.

Mustafa Dawood, 23, suffered head injuries when he fell from the roof of a car wash while being chased by officers.

He had been working illegally at the Shaftesbury hand car wash in Newport when it was raided in June 2018.

Mr Dawood had fled persecution in his home country of Sudan.

However, his claim for asylum in the UK had been refused by the Home Office.

At an inquest in Newport, jurors concluded that a decision to abandon pursuing Mr Dawood was not "effectively communicated" to all officers.

The jury also found that officers did not move far enough away from him, and that one officer should not have held his baton in a "racked position" over his shoulder while Mr Dawood climbed up the warehouse doors.

Jurors also concluded that officers were not "appropriately trained in pursuit procedures".

The jury decided all of these matters had possibly contributed to Mr Dawood's death.

Coroner Caroline Saunders said she would be writing to the appropriate head of service because she had not heard that changes had been made to the pursuit policy.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) made a series of recommendations following the death to the Home Office in 2019, all of which were accepted.

These included the need for tailored risk assessments, better contingency planning and improved command officer support for operational staff when carrying out enforcement visits.

Mustafa Dawood had been working at Shaftesbury car wash in Albany Street, Newport


The inquest at Gwent Coroner's Court heard immigration officers had arrived at Albany Trading Estate just after 10:00 GMT on 30 June 2018 following intelligence that foreign nationals were working there illegally.

They chased Mr Dawood, who ran onto the roof of a warehouse, believing he would be arrested.

The officer in charge, Matthew Day, said he called off the pursuit due to concern about Mr Dawood's safety.

However other officers present that day said they did not remember receiving an order to stop.

While running away, Mr Dawood fell through plastic roofing into a locked room below, where he was eventually found with "severe and fatal" head wounds.

'My son was not a thief or a murderer'


Officer Gregory Williams told the court Mr Dawood would not have been arrested and instead would have been told to go home, while the car wash would have been fined.

Mr Williams claimed he would not have been deported, given the current situation in Sudan.

During the week-long inquest, the jury heard Mr Dawood was from the Zaghawa tribe in the Darfur region of western Sudan, a non-Arabic group who face ethnic cleansing by local Arab militia groups.

Mr Dawood's mother, Hameda Hamed Shogar Ahmed, who was present in court throughout the inquest, described how her son found himself in increasing danger in Sudan and fled to the UK in 2015.

She said: "(In Sudan) there is so much killing every day, so many young people are killed or disappeared - that's why our young men have to flee to avoid the same destiny.

"My son was not a thief or a murderer, he was just a young person asking for safety."

'I hope lessons will be learned'
Hameda Hamed Shogar Ahmed says Mustafa would not have died if officers were well-trained


Speaking through an interpreter after the inquest, she said the family was pleased with the jury's findings.

"By listening to the testimony of the witnesses, several facts became apparent to us. The immigration officers were not well trained, and if they had been, this disaster would not have not happened," she said.

She also said the officers made "serious mistakes when pursuing Mustafa".

She added that his asylum support money had been stopped temporarily shortly before his fatal fall and the family "believe it was why he was working at the car wash".

"I hope lessons will be learned from Mustafa's death," she said.

'Desperately sad'


IOPC director Catrin Evans said it was "desperately sad" that Mr Dawood died in "such awful circumstances" after fleeing his own country to seek safety in the UK.

She said the IOPC found there was "no evidence" that Mr Dawood's death could have been "reasonably foreseen by those present", as he had ran off almost immediately after officers arrived.

"Our investigation concluded that the officers' actions were broadly in line with policies and procedures and no individual immigration enforcement officer behaved in a manner that would justify disciplinary proceedings," she said.

"However, we identified significant organisational learning to try to help better safeguard individuals when suddenly encountering immigration officials in such circumstances."

Ms Evans said the recommendations would help to "reduce the risk of others being injured in the future and should serve to develop practice and procedures within immigration enforcement to improve public confidence".


After fleeing war in Sudan, Mustafa Dawood died in Newport

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
×