Prince Fosu was neglected for six days until he died, naked and starving. We cannot treat people with such inhumanity

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Dostoevsky said a society’s civilisation can be judged by its prisons. I would add this: a society’s humanity can be judged by its immigration removal centres.

What does it say about us that a man who entered Britain on a valid business visa – with all the optimism and ambition that entails – died emaciated, dehydrated and in a state of utter despair, at a detention centre near Heathrow.

That Prince Kwabena Fosu’s story could unfold in modern Britain is hard to comprehend. A 31-year-old Ghanaian national, he was experiencing a psychiatric crisis so acute that – it was said during the inquest – even someone with no expertise would have noticed. He was taken to the Harmondsworth centre, where staff instead labelled him disruptive – his mental health was never assessed – and placed him in segregation, where for six days he lay naked on a concrete floor, not eating, drinking or sleeping. He died on 30 October 2012, emaciated, from hypothermia, dehydration and malnourishment, weighing only 47kg, having lost 15% of his body weight in less than a week.