23 Apr Claim against home office by migrant subjected to dehumanising treatiment
Our client has commenced a legal challenge against the Home Office, its staff and agents, in respect of the way that she was dealt with by staff at her asylum support accommodation provided to our client under the Home Office’s Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract with Clear Springs Ready Homes and Migrant Help.
Our client, heavily pregnant, in severe pain and in fear for the safety of her baby, sought immediate assistance from staff at her asylum support accommodation, urgent assistance was denied to her. Our client lost her baby.
The proposed claims against the Home Office are for negligence, for the failure to discharge the duty of care owed to our client, which led to personal injury, psychiatric damage, distress, and anxiety. She will also claim under the Equality Act for the discrimination she experienced and the breach of her human rights.
Since being instructed late last year we have been gathering evidence, a Letter of Claim has now been sent. Our client hopes to improve the Home Office’s systems so that others don’t experience the treatment she was subjected too. Unfortunately the longer the case continues the more upsetting and re-traumatising it will be for our client, we hope the Home Office will recognise the clear failings here and take the necessary steps promptly.
The Guardian has covered this case in this piece.
Ugo Hayter, one of the partners at DPG representing said:
“Our client has experienced a catalogue of mistreatment all linked to her being a woman, pregnant, and black. At 8 months pregnant she had to flee her home country to find safety. Upon arrival in the UK destitute and alone, she was sexually exploited. Having finally managed to access help from the authorities, whilst heavily pregnant and bleeding, she experienced dehumanising treatment.
This case is less about the callous treatment she received from the staff, but more about a system that breeds such treatment. The treatment of our client is an outcome of the government’s hostile environment policy. One improvement the Home Office could make is to cease granting Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts to the lowest bidder.”
The barrister instructed in this claim is Suzanne Lambert of 1 Crown Office Row, instructed by DPG partners Adam Hundt and Ugo Hayter and assisted by paralegal Bryony Goodesmith.
Contact details for follow-up queries: bristol@dpglaw.co.uk
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