One of the immigrants currently interned in Archidona prison, which is currently being used as a Centre for Internment of Foreigners (CIE), has been found dead in his cell this morning.
First reports suggest that he was a 36 year old Algerian citizen and he committed suicide by hanging.
The deceased arrived by boat in Cartagena last November, after which he was transferred to the Archidona facilities in Malaga after a court in Lorca authorised his internment until 18 January, the final date on which he could be detained in a detention centre.
Sources explained that his body was found this morning at about 9am when a colleague went to look for the inmate prior to breakfast. He was found hanged in his cell.
An autopsy will be now be carried out at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Malaga.
It is understood that tensions in the centre have been increasing in recent weeks with the introduction of repatriation of immigrants to their country. Since then a number of riots and confrontations have occurred inside the facilities.
Reaction to the suicide has been swift from many associations, groups and organisations that are closely following the movements of the immigrants in prison. Thus, the president of the Platform for Solidarity with Immigrants, Luis Pernía, has described the event as “foreseeable”, since it is not the first suicide that has occurred in a CIE in Málaga.
With over 20 years of experience in dealing with refugees, Pernía explained that immigrants interned in the CIEs are under a lot of pressure because they know that they will be returned to their country of origin, where in addition to the poverty that led them to leave, many are returning to face violence and large debts from the mafias that helped them cross the Mediterranean.
