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Postive Action in Housing
Ms Baguma is believed to have lost her job when her right to work expired
A prayer service in Uganda for a mother found dead at her home in Glasgow has been cancelled as the family await more details about her death.
Mercy Baguma’s body was found next to her crying baby in their flat in Govan a week ago.
Friends had not heard from her for four days. Her death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.
Ms Baguma’s death has led to calls from campaigners for changes to the way asylum seekers are treated in the UK.
Her father, Abdul Nakendo, said a planned service in her home town of Bugiri in Uganda would not go ahead on Saturday morning.
He told waiting journalists prayers in memory of his daughter were cancelled because of the media attention surrounding her death and that the family was still waiting for more detailed information.
The ceremony was due to take place in her home town, a three-hour drive east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
Abdul Nakendo said the family had decided to postpone a prayer service
Mr Nakendo said the family would be more open once a post-mortem examination into her death was released and her body brought back home.
They expect the report on 4 September and for her body to be repatriated in two weeks’ time.
The body of Mercy Baguma was discovered after the sounds of her son crying were heard.
Refugee charity Positive Action in Housing said Ms Baguma had claimed asylum and lived in “extreme poverty”.
It said she lost her job after her right to work in the UK expired.
The young boy was found next to his mother, crying and hungry, according to Robina Qureshi, the charity’s director.
‘Consumed with sadness’
While the detailed circumstances of her death have not yet been fully established, it has sparked criticism at the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in the Scottish Parliament that she felt “consumed with sadness” and anger after learning of the incident.
She called for a complete reform of the UK’s “deeply inhumane” asylum system.
Friends of the mother set up a fundraising page to raise cash for her funeral and to provide for her son.
The page has attracted donations totalling almost £49,000, nearly five times the original target of £10,000.
The Home Office has said it will be conducting a “full investigation” and offered its condolences to Ms Baguma’s family.
