Theresa May says amendment to Immigration Bill will limit detention of pregnant women for immigration purposes
Home Secretary Theresa May announced in a written statement to the Houses of Commons and Lords today that the Government plans to end the routine detention of pregnant women for immigration purposes.
An amendment to the Immigration Bill will place a seventy-two hour time limit on the detention of pregnant women, extendable to up to seven days with Ministerial authorisation.
As the Observer noted yesterday, the House of Lords had voted in favour of a total ban, but a Home Office spokesperson said the Home Secretary wished to retain the ability to hold pregnant women for a short period "in order to quickly remove them if they have no right to stay in the UK, or if they present a risk to the public".
Theresa May said today that the new safeguard would ensure that detention for pregnant women would only be used as a last resort and for very short periods.
She added that wider changes are underway to improve the welfare of all vulnerable people in immigration detention through a series of reforms.
May's full written statement follows below:
Immigration detention :Written statement - HCWS679
The Government plans to end the routine detention of pregnant women. Similar to the arrangements put in place as part of the ending routine detention for families with children in 2014, the Government will table an amendment to the Immigration Bill, when it returns to this House shortly, placing a seventy-two hour time limit on the detention of pregnant women. This will be extendable to up to a week with Ministerial authorisation.
We have already made progress on this and the Government is clear that pregnant women should be detained only in exceptional circumstances. 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.
We expect people who do not have the right to stay here to leave voluntarily. As with the family returns process, we will be able to offer support to those who choose to leave voluntarily to ensure that individuals are able to exercise control over their departure.
However, we need to ensure that we are able to effectively manage returns for those who do not depart voluntarily. This new safeguard will ensure that detention for pregnant women will be used as a last resort and for very short periods – for example: immediately prior to a managed return; to prevent illegal entry at the border where a return can be arranged quickly, or if a pregnant woman presents a public risk.
Wider changes are underway to improve the welfare of all vulnerable people in detention through a series of reforms, including a new policy on "adults at risk." The Immigration Minister set out details of these reforms in a Written Ministerial Statement on 14 January in response to the recommendations in Stephen Shaw's report on the welfare of vulnerable people in detention.
The Government has listened carefully to concerns expressed in Parliament and by others and believes that the proposed amendment, combined with the wider reforms, strikes the right balance between protecting vulnerable women and maintaining effective and proportionate immigration control.
In due course the Government also intends to invite Stephen Shaw to carry out a short review in order to assess progress against the key actions from his previous report.