Inquiry into 'mistreatment' of Ugandan refugee

The healthcare of asylum seekers in Britain's detention centres is to be independently monitored following a catalogue of suicides and alleged mistreatment.

Tony McNulty, the Immigration minister, bowed to pressure after years of protest from doctors and refugee campaigners angered by the standard of treatment given to detained asylum seekers.

The move follows a decision by the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, to hold an inquiry into how a Ugandan woman was reduced to a state of mental collapse during seven months in detention.

The inquiry, beginning today, will seek to establish whether the suspected brain damage suffered by Sophie Odogo was caused by mistreatment while she was held at Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire and by aborted attempts to return her to Uganda. Ms Odogo, 35, claims she fled the African country after being imprisoned, raped and tortured by soldiers from the Ugandan army before she escaped, flying to the UK on 2 May last year. She is now an inpatient at the psychiatric wing of the Maudsley Hospital in south-east London.

In a letter to Conservative MP Alistair Burt, dated 8 February and seen by The Independent, Mr McNulty said that Ms Odogo's case "has highlighted the need for an independent body to routinely undertake investigations into complaints about the provision of healthcare in immigration removal centres".

Mr McNulty confirmed that Ms Owers will investigate "healthcare provision at Yarl's Wood with specific reference to mental and traumatic stress disorders and to the treatment of Sophie Odogo".

He said he had agreed to Ms Owers' request that Enid Ruhango, a second Ugandan asylum seeker who shared a room with Ms Odogo and who will be a key witness to the inquiry, can stay in the country to give evidence. The Home Office had threatened to deport her before the inquiry.

Attempts to deport Ms Odogo back to Uganda were "inappropriate and quite disgraceful bearing in mind her condition", said Mr Burt, in whose North East Bedfordshire constituency Yarl's Wood lies. "There must be question marks about the responsibility of the Home Office for what has happened to her," he said, adding that it was "suspicious" that the Home Office had sought to remove her room-mate after agreeing to the inquiry.

The Home Office has said Ms Odogo's claim was "not credible" and denied her political asylum. She refused to return voluntarily to Uganda, so on 10 June was imprisoned at Yarl's Wood. At the beginning of August, she and Ms Ruhango began a hunger strike in protest at their proposed deportation.

On 26 August, the manager of the medical centre at Yarl's Wood reported that there were "no concerns" about their health, despite their continued hunger strike. The following day, Dr Frank Arnold, an expert on torture injuries working for the Medical Justice Network, found them to be "extremely ill" and arranged for their transfer to Bedford Hospital.

He later confirmed that it was "very improbable" that scars on their bodies "could have been sustained any other way than [by] torture".

At Bedford, the women were medically re-fed before being returned to Yarl's Wood. The inquiry will examine whether a failure by Yarl's Wood to continue appropriate treatment led to the onset in Ms Odogo of what Dr Arnold believes is Wernicke's encephalopathy, a life-threatening illness caused by malnutrition. Dr Arnold believes the medical staff who treated her failed to carry out tests to rule out Wernicke's.

Both women were returned to Yarl's Wood where, on 21 September, guards entered their cell with a wheelchair saying she was to be sent back to Uganda. She was allowed to remain after interventions by Mr Burt and her solicitor.

The Prisons Inspectorate inquiry will question Veritas Management, which runs the medical centre at Yarl's Wood, and GSL UK Ltd, which runs Yarl's Wood.

A spokesman for GSL said it "welcomes close and independent scrutiny". The managing director of Veritas, Julie Dowson, said that all detainees were treated "with the utmost care and attention" at Yarl's Wood, and that Ms Odogo and Ms Ruhango were "constantly monitored ... while on hunger strike".

The inquiry increases pressure on the Government to rethink its policy on detaining asylum seekers. Detention centre capacity has trebled since 1997.

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