Michael Pereira’s father Victor was a “man with a big heart”, who was generous in his affection, and who loved to hug and kiss his family.
“He was a man full of passion, with a strong temperament, yet he had a unique way of making people laugh and feel at ease”, Mr Pereira remembered.
Mr Pereira never knew why his father felt he had to flee his home country Colombia, eventually claiming asylum in the UK in August 2023. But he was certain his father had not had any mental health issues before he sought safety in Britain.
In testimony to his father’s inquest, Mr Pereira detailed how he saw his father deteriorate from someone who was sociable and easy-going, to a person who was increasingly paranoid.
Victor Hugo Pereira Vargas, 63, killed himself in his room at a Home Office asylum hotel in Hailsham, Sussex on 13 October 2023. Just a few weeks earlier he had made a desperate attempt to leave the UK, turning up at Gatwick airport and asking immigration officers to put him on a plane out of the country.
He had even filled out a voluntary return form to express his interest in being returned to Colombia, and had told his son several times that he was afraid of being moved to the Bibby Stockholm barge – describing it as a “maritime prison”.
An inquest into his death heard how he was repeatedly failed by staff at the hotel, and the officials in charge of managing the Home Office’s large asylum contracts, who didn’t know the full reality of how the hotel was being run.
Hotel staff missed signs of his deterioration despite conducting regular welfare checks, did not help him report to the police a robbery he suffered, and took two weeks to book him a GP mental health appointment.
While Clearsprings Ready Homes managed the overall contract, they subcontracted the running of Mr Pereira Vargas’s hotel to another company Crown Lodge. Crown Lodge then outsourced the staff of the hotel to a third company, Becker Hoffman. Some staff were “not appropriately” trained to deal with vulnerable people, the coroner found.
Clearsprings told the court it came to rely on subcontractors as an emergency measure to cope with an unforeseen rapid increase in small boat arrivals shortly after the pandemic.
Testimony from his eldest son Mr Pereira, who lives in the United States, detailed how his father would wake up in his hotel room drenched in sweat, unable to sleep, and how he felt isolated and had no one to talk to.
“He was a man who gave everything he had. One thing that always weighed heavily on him was his desire to give his children a better life than the one he had,” Mr Pereira said: “He was always striving for that, but often he struggled to figure out the best way to achieve it.”
Speaking about his father’s death, Mr Pereira said: “I still haven’t been able to process it to be honest because I don’t understand what happened or why no one took care of him when he went there in the first place to find safety.”
On 9 August 2023, Mr Pereira received a voicenote from his dad in which he “sounded really worried” after seeing news of the-then Conservative government “putting people on a boat” – an apparent reference to the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge.
On 12 August, he received another message in which his father asked: “What are they going to do with the people? Are they going to put them in jail? Because that was a maritime prison”.
According to incident reports, by 16 August, Mr Pereira Vargas was asking hotel staff how he could leave the UK, was visibly distressed, and asked the staff to call the police.
In mid-September, he told hotel staff that he had not slept for three days, but they did not book him a mental health GP appointment until two weeks later.
He again asked hotel staff if the Home Office could arrange for him to leave the country, according to the incident reports, and said he was hearing banging noises and was getting panicked.
In an act of desperation, he went to Gatwick Airport at the end of September and requested that an immigration officer put him on a flight out of the UK. He was apparently told to go to an immigration centre in Croydon, but having no money to travel there he slept overnight in the airport car park.
Vulnerable, panicked and without money, Mr Pereira Vargas encountered some other Columbians who said they could get him a plane ticket if he sold his watch to them, the inquest heard.
After being taken in, these people then reportedly stole his wallet and documents. He recounted what happened to hotel staff after managing to return back.
The last time Mr Pereira spoke to his father was a few days before he died. He told the inquest: “I just remember that he sounded stressed about staying there and he was saying he wanted to find a way to go somewhere else but he didn’t give me any details about his plans. I thought that he was just trying to figure out a way to sort out his asylum.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected], or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
