A 28-year-old African migrant hanged himself at a reception house run by the Diocese of Turin in Italy.
Turin Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia said the migrant from Gambia, Gaye Demba, took his life due to “interior wounds that we weren’t able to heal.” He said his death should “force us to reflect on the many wounds…that he and many other migrants have.”
Gaye was ‘a kind man’
Gaye was living legally in Italy and had been staying at the ex-MOI structure until it was first evacuated in November 2017. At that time the Diocese of Turin took him under its wing, together with other migrants in the same situation. Sergio Durando, director of the diocese’s pastoral care of migrants, said Demba was “a kind man, liked by all.”
“Unfortunately he had severe depressive tendencies, and had already tried to take his life a few months ago.” After that episode, Durando said that directors at the diocese had asked for him to be looked after at the psychiatric care facility at the Mauriziano Hospital. On being released, he seemed better, but unfortunately he wasn’t. ” He even knew he was suffering, because he had agreed to undergo special treatment for this type of disturbance,” Durando said.
The community of the diocese has been deeply affected by Demba’s death, both the workers and his African friends who lived with him and who had rallied around him in recent months “to protect him from himself.”