THE mother of a Sudanese man who died after falling off a roof at a Newport car wash during an immigration raid, have issued a statement following the conclusion of the inquest into his death.
Mustafa Dawood, who was 23, died after he climbed onto a rood at the Shaftesbury hand car wash in Albany Road, where he was working, when uniformed immigration officers turned up on June 30, 2018.
In a statement issued after the conclusion, Mr Dawood’s mother Hameda Ahmed said: “I came from Sudan to know the facts and circumstances of the death of my son, Mustafa, on June 30, 2018.
“I loved my son very much.
Mustafa Dawood
“By listening to the testimonies of the witnesses, several facts became apparent to us.
“The immigration officers were not well trained and if they had been this disaster would have not occurred.
“Also, the officers made serious mistakes when pursuing Mustafa - they did not move away from him after they decided to terminate the pursuit: in fact one officer pulled out his baton in an aggressive manner and Mustafa then climbed onto the roof from which he ultimately fell to his death.
“We are pleased that the jury members agreed with us that these actions may have contributed to Mustafa’s death.
“The family wish to acknowledge the efforts the officers went to when attempting to save Mustafa’s life after he fell.
“It is also important that the Home Office confirmed in the hearing that Mustafa would not have been arrested or removed from the UK if he was caught.
“We know that his asylum support money had been stopped improperly shortly before this incident and we believe that is why he was working at the car wash.
“No matter what we do, Mustafa will not return to life but I would like to say that this tragedy will not happen to other families.
“I hope lessons will be learnt from Mustafa’s death.”
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