Asylum-seeker killed himself so son could stay

The psychological effects of Britain's policy of locking up asylum-seekers were demonstrated yesterday at an inquest into the death of an Angolan man who took his life so that his teenage son might stay in Britain.

The inquest jury hearing the case of Manuel Bravo watched images from CCTV cameras at the Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire that showed him leaving his room and hanging himself in a stairwell. His last words to his 13-year-old son Antonio, who shared his room at Yarl's Wood where they had been moved together 12 hours earlier, had been: "Be brave. Work hard. Do well at school."

In what is known in immigration service parlance as a "pastoral visit", a Leeds immigration officer, Dave Baker, called at the Bravos' Leeds terrace on 13 September last year to check on their presence. Mr Baker gave no hint of the Bravos' imminent fate and even offered to help with the missing appeal result. But the following day at 6.10am he was back with five police officers, who secured entry to the house with a battering ram.

Antonio has been granted five years' leave to remain in Britain and been placed with a foster family in Leeds.