A DIABETIC Congolese asylum seeker died in his Nicosia hostel room yesterday after it emerged welfare services had cut his benefits denying him vital regular meals.
Antoine Bassumga, 41, was found unconscious in his €200 per month room at the Alexandria Hotel by the hotel’s cleaner Malanie Jayasindhe and his next door neighbour at 10am yesterday.
They called paramedics, who confirmed that Bassumga had died, but they refused to remove the body. Police later carried him away in a squad car.
The cause of death will be confirmed at an autopsy at 10am today. However, the early signs suggest his death could be due to a diabetes induced coma, indirectly the result of being left penniless when he slipped through cracks in asylum services bureaucracy.
From 2005 until June this year, Bassumga received healthcare and welfare funding as an asylum seeker. However, according to Doros Polycarpou, the director of the immigrants’ support group KISA, after changes to welfare services three months ago Bassumga was told he had to carry out light work to receive benefits and sent him to the labour office.
The labour office sent him back because asylum seekers are only eligible for manual labour, of which he was obviously incapable. “He went back and forward like ping pong. It is unacceptable that two departments in the same ministry cannot agree,” said Polycarpou.
In the meantime, welfare cancelled his payments. And while his medical card gave him continued access to his twice daily insulin injections, without being able to afford regular meals he ran the risk of slipping into a coma and dying.
Jayasindhe’s manager Maria Manui also knew of his health and money problems, adding that his friends had been supporting him financially in his final weeks. Arriving before the ambulance, Manui had tried to resuscitate Bassumga. “It was really sad. His room was so tidy and he even had flowers in there. He was very house proud.”
One friend noted Bassumga’s worsening psychological condition, brought on by the events of the war and long term separation from his wife and child.
His tragic death comes after a five and half year struggle for refugee status, which has exposed numerous shortcomings and even possible discrimination in the asylum and welfare system.
After leaving behind a wife and children in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Bassumga arrived in Cyprus through the north in April 2005. He immediately sought asylum at Paphos Gate Police station in Nicosia.
According to Polycarpou, policemen refused to process his application on several occasions.
For most migrants who are escaping persecution, this rejection means remaining illegal and facing deportation if found trying to earn money. In Bassumga’s case however, this rejection could have been fatal because without asylum seeker status, he could not obtain insulin to treat his diabetes.
Until KISA intervened in May 2005, the Nicosia General Hospital had refused to give Bassumga insulin, demanding either that he showed a medical card or paid the fee. The intervention was a success; the hospital issued a temporary card and Bassumga gained asylum seeker status in the same month. With regular payments from the welfare office he rented a room in the Alexandria, costing £56 Cypriot pounds per month.
Like many compatriots, however he was to remain in this limbo state for several years while authorities dawdled on his application. “He could not work, he had no right for family reunion or integration and he had two interviews for his refugee status in five and a half years, but without even hearing their first decision” said Polycarpou.
Yesterday Bassumga’s clearly distraught friends -also Congolese asylum seekers- spoke out about perceived discrimination in the asylum system.
Claude, Freddy and Marc said they have spent five, four and one year respectively waiting for refugee status, while Palestinian and Iraqi asylum seekers can expect a turnaround time of just weeks.
“We don’t come here for money; we come here because of problems in our country. Palestine and the Congo is the same, but they don’t believe people from the Congo,” said Freddy. “The way the government treats Congolese here is not right. We are treated like an animal on this island,” said Marc.
Jayasindhe, equally upset by the day’s events said simply “If they cannot help then they shouldn’t take any more asylum seekers.”
A police spokesman confirmed that they had contacted the Congolese embassy in Athens and were seeking to repatriate the body. Welfare services declined to comment.
