The Home Office has apologised to a pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea who was sent a letter threatening her with forced removal to Rwanda, saying it was sent by mistake.
Guardian and ITV News revealed on Thursday that the woman was distraught after receiving the Home Office letter, which has now been withdrawn.
The 28-year-old woman is 37 weeks pregnant. Doctors say scans show her baby has stopped growing and that she may need to be induced.
Home Office officials organised a pregnancy scan for her after she arrived in the UK on a small boat in July. They also moved her from one hotel to another after she became unwell with pregnancy-related nausea in the first hotel. She requested a pregnancy grant from the Home Office to buy nutritious food for herself and her unborn baby but was told that the hotel she was staying in could provide suitable food for her.
The woman, who is using the pseudonym Delina, said she was “really frightened” about what may happen to her and her baby if she was forcibly removed to Rwanda. She had been living in an informal refugee camp in Calais for eight months before travelling to the UK in a dinghy and was struggling to survive there as a homeless young woman.
She has spent decades in search of safety. She fled Eritrea at the age of three with her mother after her father was killed by the government. Her mother took her first to Sudan and later to Lebanon. She has no family members left. “I have not been able to sleep since I got the Rwanda notice,” she said.
Clare Moseley, founder of the charity Care4Calais which is supporting the woman, said of the Home Office’s decision to withdraw the letter threatening to send the woman to Rwanda: “The Home Office knew our client was pregnant but still issued a Rwanda notice. It has been withdrawn now after the Home Office were publicly shamed which is a relief for the woman but it is shocking that it happened at all.
“The Rwanda plan is brutal. It is not safe or appropriate for any human being and the government should withdraw this plan now.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We urgently reviewed this case and found the letter was sent in error. It has now been corrected and we have issued an apology.
“Everyone in scope for relocation to Rwanda will be individually assessed, and no one will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.”
