THE Home Office “missed opportunities” to assess the mental health of an asylum-seeker who took his own life on Bibby Stockholm, a coroner had ruled.

Leonard Farruku was found unresponsive in the en-suite shower of his room on board the accommodation vessel at Portland Port, Dorset, on December 12 2023.

An inquest in Bournemouth was told that a post-mortem examination found that the 27-year-old died as a result of compression to the neck and suspension by ligature.

His sisters Marsida Keci and Jola Dushku have questioned how their brother, who they said had struggled with his mental health since the death of their parents, was allowed to be moved to the Bibby Stockholm on November 3 2023.

The inquest heard that Mr Farruku was previously accommodated at the Esplanade Hotel in Paignton, Devon, and began to show aggressive behaviour in July 2023.

Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin highlighted Home Office criteria that stated any resident who had medical or mental health needs should not be accommodated on the barge because of its remote location at Portland Port in West Dorset.

Nia Dowd, safeguarding team leader for Clearsprings Ready Homes which had accommodated Mr Farruku on behalf of the Home Office, said that staff considered him to have “serious mental health issues.”

She also emailed the Home Office on November 3 to “urgently” raise concern about Mr Farruku who was being moved to the barge, but did not receive a response.

Ms Griffin said: “It was commendable of Ms Dowd that she passed on this information knowing Leonard had been moved.

“It should have led to a further inquiry about Leonard’s suitability, it was a missed opportunity of the Home Office not to take any action.”

Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, said: “We can all agree that everyone, especially those seeking safety, should be treated with dignity and humanity.

“Yet this inquest has laid bare the fatal consequences of placing people like Leonard Farruku on barges in de facto imprisonment where safeguards exist only on paper.

“These harmful policies isolate people from community, support and healthcare, and deny them dignity.

“Amid racist rhetoric around immigration, we must remember the real human cost.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We will carefully consider the coroner’s findings when they are made available.”