Covering 1st February 2019 to 31st January 2020….
Medical Justice handled referrals from 833 immigration detainees, including victims of torture, trafficking and political persecution. 57 of our dedicated team of volunteer clinicians visited immigration detainees in immigration removal centres and prisons across the UK.
Just one of those cases involved a patient with chronic lung disease, with a background of an intensive care admission following a previous flight, and a letter from a respiratory consultant stating he was not fit to fly, was transferred to the airport in an ambulance with the intention of removal; a letter from Medical Justice was able to halt the removal at the last minute on medical grounds.
Medical Justice uses medical evidence generated through casework to document medical mistreatment and the harm cause by immigration detention. This is used as the basis of policy work, strategic litigation and parliamentary work.
In Financial Year 2019-20 our work reached wide – we influenced positive changes in NHS England Service Specifications for the provision of healthcare in detention, benefiting all immigration detainees; we got an injunction banning the use of ‘no notice removal windows’, affecting tens of thousands of those being forcibly removed from the UK; and we act as secretariat for the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention which we hope will amplify the impact of both our work and that of other organisations.
One former client told me this week “Medical Justice simply surpasses being a charity that supports detainees but is a charity that saves lives, families and promotes equality”.
We hope you will be able to take a look at the report to read more about what has been achieved.
Thank you for your ongoing support, without which our work would not be possible.
