Members of Australia’s Eritrean community gathered in Seabrook on Sunday to mourn the death of an asylum seeker.
Rezene Engida, 40, is believed to have taken his life on Wednesday.
Family and friends say that Mr Engida, who arrived in Australia five years ago but did not have permanent residency, was increasingly worried he would be sent back to Eritrea.
Family friend Risson Welela said that Mr Engida came to Australia on a marriage visa but had separated.
‘‘There was quite a lot of frustration for him, in terms of finalising the status of his stay and basically that led to him just taking that momentous decision in his life and saying, ‘Look, I can’t take it any more’, and then he just walked to the Maribyrnong River and it led to what happened.
‘‘Everyone around was shocked. The lesson to learn is that should there be any issues in the community, what can everyone do, to make everyone’s situation better.
‘‘The community is coming together, and supporting the family as well is the main [priority] going through this difficult time.’’
Mr Engida’s cousin, Seabrook man Fessehaye Messu, said his immigration case was all that Mr Engida talked about.
‘‘The whole process is taking nearly five years. It’s a long, long, long process.
‘‘With this long time, his depression is coming up. Every day he was depressed.
‘‘Then he’s thinking he would be returned to home.’’
African Think Tank chairman, Dr Berhan Ahmed, said the Eritrean community was uniting to share their grief and raise funds to repatriate Mr Engida’s body ‘‘in keeping with the tradition and customs of the Orthodox Christianity practices’’.
‘‘He’s been here for some time trying to settle, find a job,’’ Dr Ahmed said. “He’s tried quite a number of ways to get himself to fit into the society, but he’s been waiting, frustrated with the paperwork taking so long.
‘‘And when you don’t have that paper, you are blocked from so many things.
‘‘This man has gone through so many frustrations. In fact, he’s got a trade: he’s a good builder.
‘‘His case was not going anywhere. His final destiny was to return to Eritrea. He was very anxious in how he would have been treated if he was there because he ran out of the army. Today is about bringing the community together to mourn. It was a shock because a lot of people knew him in Footscray, in Flemington, all around the inner west and inner north. He was so very nice and very intelligent in many ways.’’
Pamela Curr, of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, expressed shock at hearing of the death. ‘‘[It is] unbelievable that Australia would even consider returning an Eritrean back to Eritrea.
‘‘For God’s sake, there is no country in the world that I know of that is returning Eritreans.’’
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Mr Engida was not an asylum seeker because he had entered Australia legally on a provisional spousal visa in 2009.
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