The report shows that, although migrant pregnant women are detained with a view to their removal, only 5% of those held in one particular detention centre in the UK in 2011 were successfully removed. It also finds that the healthcare these women received in detention was inadequate and that asylum seeking women have poorer health outcomes during and after childbirth than others. The report shows the risks that detention entails for pregnancy and calls on the British government to stop detaining pregnant women.
Category: News
Home Office responsibility for women miscarrying in immigration detention
The Home Office was recently made to accept their responsibility in the tragic miscarriage of a rape survivor. The woman was unlawfully held in immigration detention which amounted to inhumane and degrading treatment.
This case shows precisely why the Home Office must, finally, heed of our advice and that of the medical profession, and actually ban the detention of pregnant women.
Medical Justice sent volunteer midwives to visit pregnant women in immigration detention for a decade. We warned the Home Office that women and their unborn children were suffering from inadequate healthcare and that they should ban the detention of pregnant women immediately. The Home Office paid little attention.
One of our clients had complained for three weeks about abdominal pains was sent to A & E where she miscarried with two guards in attendance. She subsequently attempted suicide and was admitted into a psychiatric ward.
In 2013 we published “Expecting Change: The case for ending the detention of pregnant women”, a dossier which called for the end of detention for pregnant women. This call was backed by the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, as well as 337 organisations.
In 2015 Channel 4 News undercover cameras revealed the callous treatment of pregnant women in detention. In 2016 the Home Office commission Stephen Shaw, a former Prison and Probation Ombudsman to review the use of immigration detention – he too called for a ban on the detention of pregnant women.
The detention of pregnant women was curtailed to 72 hours, extendable up to a week with ministerial authorisation, following a concerted campaign by non-governmental organisations, medical professionals and parliamentarians in 2016. But as we can see from this case, this is not enough. A time limit will only go so far, which is why we must end detention for pregnant women.
When asked by the Home Office for a follow-on review in 2018, Shaw called again for a total ban on the detention of pregnant women, an option the Home Office chose again not to implement.
Immigration detention is optional so the Home Office is responsible for any woman miscarrying in detention. The Home Office must do the right thing, urgently, and actually ban the detention of pregnant women as they run the real risk of another miscarriage in detention, for which they will be responsible.
- This text is an expanded version of ‘Ban the detention of pregnant women’ which appeared in The Guardian, Tues 20 August 2019
Invitation : Medical Justice Annual General Meeting
5.30-8.30pm Tuesday 16th July 2019
Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, London, WC2A 3LJ.
Continue reading “Invitation : Medical Justice Annual General Meeting “
Medical Justice on the London Legal Walk
Monday 17th June from 4pm
Join us on the 10km walk on 17th June to raise funds for Medical Justice to help immigration detainees get much-needed medical evidence and support to access free legal advice. Continue reading “Medical Justice on the London Legal Walk”
Removal windows case : BBC2 Victoria Derbyshire programme interviews two men removed from the UK
21st March 2019
Mr A and Mr AT were both removed from the UK. The Home Office was ordered to bring them back. The BBC2 Victoria Derbyshire programme interviewed them both yesterday, together with Theresa Schleicher of Medical Justice. Watch the interview here which starts at It starts at 46 mins 41 secs.
Continue reading “Removal windows case : BBC2 Victoria Derbyshire programme interviews two men removed from the UK”
High Court suspends unscrupulous policy of removing unwanted migrants from the UK without warning
14th March 2019 Medical Justice press statement for immediate release
High Court suspends unscrupulous policy of removing unwanted migrants from the UK without warning
The Home Office removals policy enabling it to refuse a migrant’s case and forcibly remove them from the UK, within hours and in many cases without access to legal representation, was suspended by a High Court judge today, potentially tearing the heart out of the government’s “hostile environment” strategy against migrants.
Supreme Court reasserts the role of medical experts in asylum claims by torture survivors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Wednesday 6 March
Joint press release with Freedom From Torture and the Helen Bamber Foundation
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the lower courts were wrong to override the conclusions of a medical expert when considering forensic evidence of torture in an asylum claim.
Medical Justice statement regarding criminal charges being dropped regarding the death of Prince Fosu at Harmondsworth IRC in 2012.
Medical Justice statement regarding criminal charges being dropped regarding the death of Prince Fosu at Harmondsworth IRC in 2012.
Medical Justice submits evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry immigration detention.
Medical Justice submits evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry immigration detention.
The full submission can be found here.
Medical Justice evidence to the second Shaw review
Medical Justice submits evidence to the second Shaw review into the welfare in detention of vulnerable people.
Continue reading “Medical Justice evidence to the second Shaw review”