AHEAD of today's meeting in Parliament (1) to discuss the continuing detention of pregnant refugees despite the Home Office's own regulations (2), Green Party Women’s Spokesperson Sarah Cope (3) said:
"Women are sometimes taken to hospital appointments in handcuffs, despite not being criminals. These women’s only ‘crime’ is seeking refuge in the UK, often fleeing domestic abuse, persecution, rape and torture.
“I regularly spot pregnant women in the visits’ hall at Yarl’s Wood. The healthcare, provided by private firm G4S, is rudimentary at best, and not at all for purpose when it comes to caring for pregnant women.
“Ending the detention of pregnant women would be a small step in the right direction. Let’s hope today’s meeting, rather than being just an exchange of ideas, brings about rapid change for these most vulnerable of migrant women.”
Notes:
1. 'Pregnant women in detention: the current situation and the need for change', hosted by Caroline Spelman MP, arranged by Medical Justice, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors and Women for Refugee Women. The meeting will include a short film made by Mumsnet (members reading out accounts written by pregnant women in Yarl's Wood) and a talk on the legal situation from Stephanie Harrison QC (Garden Court Chambers). A representative from the Royal College of Midwives and an ex-detainee Ella, who herself was pregnant in Yarl’s Wood, will also be at the discussion. Women for Refugee Women is a charity which works with women seeking asylum in the UK, and whose ‘Set Her Free’ campaign is demanding the end to the detention of pregnant women.
2. Home Office regulations state that pregnant women should be detained in immigration removal centres only when completely unavoidable. However, in 2014, 99 pregnant women were detained in Yarls Wood [http://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/99women/]
3. Green Party women’s spokesperson Sarah Cope volunteers as a befriender, visiting and supporting women in Yarl’s Wood. Green Party policy is to end all immigration detention, seeing it as unnecessary, inhumane and expensive.