AN asylum seeker has been found hanged at Haslar Immigration Removal Centre.

The body of Ukrainian Mikhail Bodnarchuk was discovered by fellow inmates on the day he was due to be deported back to his home country.

The 42-year-old had fled his homeland in September 2000 but his asylum claim was refused.

He was due to have left Britain on January 31 - the day he was found hanged by his shoelaces in a toilet.

Staff at the centre tried to resuscitate Mr Bodnarchuk, who has a wife and two children in the Ukraine.

His room mate, also from the Ukraine, noticed he was missing early on Friday and searched the Gosport centre for him with another asylum seeker from Pakistan.

The centre, which holds about 155 men, is to hold a memorial service on Thursday at 10am.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed there had been a death at the detention centre on Friday at 5.30am.

The prison service has launched an investigation. The police will also carry out a separate inquiry. Their findings will be put before an inquest which is likely to be held over three days in May.

Michael Woolley of the Haslar Visitors' Group, which recruits volunteers to befriend asylum seekers, said: "The suicide illustrates the very real fears that some asylum seekers have of being returned to their own countries.

"Amnesty and the UK Home Office both report that torture is rife in the Ukraine and it seems that this man could not face that prospect."

The Haslar Visitors' Group has pledged to bring the incident to the attention of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Removal Policy.