The authorities tried to deport one woman despite the fact that she was still in pain and clearly unfit to travel.

Pregnant women at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre are demanding an independent investigation into the treatment of expectant mothers, who they allege have been denied vital antenatal care, resulting in one case, in a miscarriage.

In a letter received by the Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP), the women describe a systematic neglect and institutionalised failure to provide the vital resources and healthcare which expectant mothers are entitled to, and which SERCO, the multi-national running Yarl’s Wood, have a duty to provide.

The five pregnant women who drafted the letter claimed that they were denied urgent antenatal healthcare as well as dietary supplements. The letter also states that on June 21 four of the women went to the healthcare centre in Yarl’s Wood because they were suffering vaginal bleeding. Despite their symptoms, none were examined or given treatment.

They were told to return to their rooms. One woman, who continued to bleed, had to be taken to hospital later that evening. She had a miscarriage and her premature baby was stillborn. Two other women subsequently collapsed. The authorities tried to deport one woman despite the fact that she was still in pain and clearly unfit to travel. The women have described their treatment as “inhuman.”

BWRAP claim that the women are also being isolated from vital support by being cut off from contact with the outside world. The charity states: “When we urgently tried to contact women we could not get through on the phone. This is not unusual despite SERCO’s claims that communication is extremely important to the residents under their care.”

After trying unsuccessfully to contact women at Yarl’s Wood, BWRAP were told that they women were simply not coming to the phone or answering their pagers. However, subsequent enquiries made to the women revealed that some of the women do not have pagers and they cannot hear the tannoy system in their rooms.