Campaigners have criticised as disappointing the home secretary’s plan to place a 72-hour limit on the detention of pregnant women held at immigration detention centres.
Theresa May confirmed her intention to end the routine detention of pregnant women following a House of Lords vote last week demanding an outright ban on the practice.
“The government will table an amendment to the immigration bill when it returns to parliament shortly placing a 72-hour limit on the detention of pregnant women. This will be extendable to up to a week with ministerial authorisation,” the home secretary told MPs in a written statement on Monday.
“The government is clear that pregnant women should be detained only in exceptional circumstances,” she added. “This is a difficult issue – we need to balance the welfare of pregnant women with the need to maintain a robust and workable immigration system and ensure that those with no right to be here leave the UK.”
May said the 72-hour safeguard would ensure that detention for pregnant women would be used as a last resort and only for very short periods. She said that this could happen in cases in the period immediately before a managed return, to prevent illegal entry at the border or if the woman “presents a public risk”.
May said the move was part of wider changes to improve the welfare of vulnerable people held in immigration detention, including a new policy on “adults at risk”.
The House of Lords vote and the home secretary’s compromise response followed a report by Stephen Shaw, the former prisons and probation ombudsman, which called for a bold reduction in the detention of 30,000 people a year under the immigration laws, including an absolute ban on the detention of pregnant women.
Shaw said there was little evidence that the detention of pregnant women was only being used in exceptional circumstances. Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire was labelled by prison inspectors as a place of national concern after they reported 99 pregnant women had been held there during 2014. More than 80% of those detained had been released rather than removed from the country.
Campaigners at Medical Justice, which works with immigration detainees, said they were disappointed May had not accepted Shaw’s recommendation, backed by the House of Lords, to end the practice completely. However, they added they were pleased she had recognised that the current policy was inadequate.
“Allowing detention to continue for longer periods of time with ministerial approval undermines the time limit entirely. The current policy already states that pregnant women should only be detained in exceptional circumstances but in reality pregnant women are routinely detained and often remain in detention for long periods of time,” the organisation said.
“Even short periods of detention are distressing for pregnant women and disruptive to maternity care. As detention occurs without notice women are not able to prepare and make plans for their maternity care. We call on the Home Office to end the detention of pregnant women.”