Asylum seeker ‘upset’ at age review before death, inquest hears

Home Office records suggest he was born in January 2000, but the court heard that a translation of his Tazkira – an Afghan identity card – showed his date of birth as October 2006, which would have made him 16 at the time.

Ms Anderson added she had “no doubt” about the decision at the time, but agreed that age assessments could be wrong.

Another Afghan asylum seeker, who shared a room in the hotel with Mr Safi in the three months leading up to his death, said his roommate was “normally happy”, but seemed “helpless and hopeless” after the age assessment.

When asked by Nottinghamshire Police, the National Document Fraud Unit said it was not possible to verify the identity document because of a “lack of robust security features”.

Coroner Ms Evans said she did not have reliable evidence about Mr Safi’s date of birth, and recorded it as “unknown”.

The inquest heard Mr Safi told the Home Office that he had wanted to claim asylum because he “feared” the Taliban, and thought they would kill him.

He said he paid £1,800 to smugglers, who put him in a small boat from France after travelling by car and foot for more than a year to Iran and Turkey from his home country Afghanistan, the inquest was told.

On 28 April, Mr Safi left the hotel at about 04:28 BST, and that the limited street lighting and his dark clothing meant drivers would not have seen him.

The court heard he may have been struck by multiple vehicles on the slip road.

Ms Evans added: “I have considered whether Amir died as a result of suicide but I’m unable to conclude that he did. There is no evidence before me that he had any intention to end his life.”