Mark Harper MP
Minister of State for Immigration
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Date: 14^th March 2013

Dear Mark,

I am writing to you to raise concerns about the treatment of pregnant women and new mothers seeking asylum. The current UK Border Agency (UKBA) policy of dispersal has seriously damaging impacts on asylum seeking women, who already have some of the poorest health outcomes in the UK. I would, therefore, urge you to address these issues to make sure that no woman’s physical and mental health is jeopardised as the result of her treatment by the UKBA.

As you will be aware, pregnant refugee and asylum seeking women can be relocated to new accommodation multiple times. The recent Refugee Council report ‘Dignity in Pregnancy’ (February 2013) has shown that the process of removal and relocation can have a significant, lasting, detrimental impact on these women and their children, especially if they are moved to a new region away from the health services upon which they rely for a healthy pregnancy. The report found that it is common practice for midwives not to be informed by UKBA that their patients are going to be moved. This can lead to lack of continuity in care, endangering the mother and her child. Furthermore, relocated women have to rebuild trust with GPs, midwives, and hospitals, often without the support of language services. This has led the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to highlight refugees and asylum seekers as an especially vulnerable group in their maternity care policies.

Relocation can also lead to mothers being moved away from their family and social network, and the vital support this can give. The result is women having to give birth alone, without a birthing partner. Furthermore, in a number of cases documented in the report, removal meant that the mother was not just separated from her family and friends but from the father of her baby as well. In some cases, women who have just given birth or have had a Caesarean section have to walk long distances from the hospital, as there are no support networks on which to lean.

This policy of dispersal of pregnant women and new mothers can lead to serious mental and physical health problems. For example, over half the women interviewed by the Refugee Council suffered from poor mental health, and two had attempted suicide during pregnancy. Additionally, one in four of the women interviewed had clinically diagnosed postnatal depression.

I recognise that the UKBA has attempted to address this by introducing a policy of a protected four week period on either side of delivery, within which a mother cannot be relocated. However, as the Refugee Council report shows, in many cases this is inadequate and does not sufficiently address many of the grave problems that arise from relocating pregnant women and new mothers.

I would, therefore, urge you to take action to stop the policy of dispersal,  as a way of protecting pregnant women and young mothers.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion

Read the ministerial response here.