A transgender woman has died while living in an all-male direct provision centre.
The woman, known as Sylva, was understood to have been staying in a men’s wing of a Galway direct provision centre when she passed away.
The circumstances around her death remain unknown.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Equality told RTE that Sylva, originally from Cameroon, “fell ill” at the centre.
LGBT advocacy groups and immigrants rights groups have expressed their condolences and offered support to those affected by Sylva’s passing.
The Irish Refugee Council said that they were “very sad” to hear the news.
“We express our deepest condolences to her family and friends and we’d like to offer our support to anyone affected by this tragic loss,” they said.
We are very sad to hear of the passing of a transgender woman living in Direct Provision in Galway. We express our deepest condolences to her family and friends and we’d like to offer our support to anyone affected by this tragic loss.
— Irish Refugee Council (@IrishRefugeeCo) August 3, 2018
Galway LGBT resource centre Teach Solais said they were also “devastated” to hear of the loss.
They wrote that the centre would be open today for Sylva’s friends to pay their respects.
A postmortem is expected to be carried out soon.
