Garden Court Chambers said on Tuesday that the Home Secretary has agreed to review the policy of detaining pregnant women at immigration removal centres.
The move comes in the wake of a groundbreaking challenge by a pregnant asylum seeker, known as PA, who was unlawfully arrested and detained at Yarl's Wood.
The Guardian reported that the Home Office offered a formal apology and will pay compensation to the pregnant asylum seeker, after accepting that the woman was unlawfully detained in breach of the government's published policy and that antenatal care "did not meet the standards expected", especially in the failure to provide a 20-week scan.
Garden Court's Stephanie Harrison QC, who acted for the claimant, said: "This is another important case in which the Home Office have conceded that they have acted unlawfully in respect of another highly vulnerable category of detainee, this time pregnant women. The case is indicative of a systemic failure to properly apply published policy which only allows for the detention of a pregnant woman in exceptional circumstances and when removal is imminent."
"No removal directions were or could be set in this case. PA was detained not for removal, but for the purposes of obtaining a travel document. This was an abuse of power. PA's experience also confirms the inadequacy of medical and antenatal care in Yarl's Wood. The pregnancy policy and indeed Yarl's Wood is not fit for purpose and an urgent review is clearly required".
The asylum seeker's solicitor, Jane Ryan at Bhatt Murphy, told the Guardian that the settlement was "groundbreaking", adding: "This is a great victory and a strong basis on which to argue that the detention of pregnant women should be ended altogether. The Home Office has been repeatedly criticised about its practice of detaining pregnant women. The apology and agreement to review both the policy and practice is an extremely important recognition that the system must change."