Concerns pregnant women not getting healthcare while ‘illegally detained’ at Manston

Fears have been raised that pregnant women are being blocked from accessing healthcare and support while being ‘illegally detained’ at Manston detention centre.It comes after migrants detained at the Kent processing site branded the environment akin to a ‘prison’ as they pleaded for help.While a young girl held at Manston threw a letter inside a bottle over the perimeter fence to a PA news agency photographer on Wednesday afternoon claiming pregnant women and sick detainees were living there.Campaigners have raised concerns pregnant women are detained for far longer than the 72-hour legal limit and are not being provided with healthcare or support.Mandu Reid, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, made an urgent plea for Suella Braverman, the home secretary, to immediately say whether pregnant women have been illegally detained there for longer than the legal cut-off point.She added: ‘The home secretary urgently needs to clarify whether pregnant women are being unlawfully detained at Manston in breach of their human rights. ‘The detention of pregnant women is traumatic and completely unnecessary in the asylum process. Poor healthcare and the stress of detention is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and can have life-long consequences for both the mother and child. ‘It’s despicable that this government appears so comfortable with the mistreatment of vulnerable women yet again, as we’ve seen in their dehumanising treatment of women in Yarl’s Wood.’Ms Reid argued a ‘pattern of mistreatment and abandonment’ is wielded ‘to deny migrant women their rights’ as she warned this ‘must end now’.