A Labour MP has been told several pregnant women who arrived in the UK on boats to seek asylum went weeks without any proper medical care.
Whilst people wait for their refugee status applications to be processed, they cannot work and are given some Government support. The Home Office previously booked three hotels in Hove to house people who arrived in the UK on boats.
But the city’s Labour MP, Peter Kyle, wrote to the government about at least five pregnant women who he claims did not see a doctor for weeks after arriving into the country, The Guardian reported.
The Home Office has also heard from a health official who accused security guards of offering pregnant women water instead of food.
Mr Kyle, who is also the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, told the Home Office an Iraqi-Kurdish woman, who was 38 weeks pregnant, was eventually seen by a community midwife who reported the alleged situation to Mr Kyle.
The midwife said the first-time mum had a pathological fear of pregnancy and showed a possible breech presentation – when the baby looks as if it will come out buttocks or feet first instead of head first.
This can cause a pregnancy to be high-risk and often leads to mums opting for a safer Caesarean birth which would need to be planned with medical professionals in advance.
The Home Office has insisted it takes the welfare of those in its care ‘very seriously’ and provides specific guidance to hotels on looking after pregnant women.
But the midwife also claims she discovered another four women who needed antenatal/prenatal care – pregnancy healthcare designed to be preventative and ongoing.
Mr Kyle also added that the pregnant women had little-to-no privacy while being treated by the midwife as ‘she was required to attend to these women in a communal area and was unable to assess their other living conditions’.
On top of this, a health official wrote a separate complaint to the Home Office alleging that security guards were withholding food from the mums-to-be.
‘Sometimes the pregnant women were only given water,’ the worker said.
Refugee Council, a support service for migrants trying to settle into the UK, reported in April that asylum seekers were not being given access to basic healthcare.
The group called on the Home Office to offer more support in helping people register for a GP.
The Home Office cannot comment on individual cases but responded to concerns in general, saying: ‘Asylum seekers in our care have access to medical support if they need it, and Migrant Help is on hand to provide 24/7 support to asylum seekers with any issues they may have.
‘All asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute are provided with free, fully furnished accommodation and we also cover their utility costs.
‘They are provided with a choice of three meals a day in line with NHS nutrition guidelines, as well as constant access to drinking water.’
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