Woman collapses at reporting centre after Home Office forces her to attend meeting despite severe pains

Exclusive: Footage shows Manjit Kaur groaning in pain as she tries to get up from her bed and later falling to ground in reporting centre

May Bulman
Social Affairs Correspondent
Friday 30 November 2018 21:01 GMT
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Woman collapses after she was forced to sign on with Home Office despite being in severe pain

A woman suffering from chronic pain collapsed in a Home Office reporting centre after she was forced to attend a meeting with immigration officials.

Video footage passed to The Independent shows Manjit Kaur, a 42-year-old Indian national, groaning as she tries to get up from her bed at her home in Leicester.

Later she falls to the ground in the Loughborough reporting centre.

Campaigners have accused the Home Office of causing “untold human misery” due to its “inflexible” reporting restrictions and called on ministers to establish a new arm-length, non-political to be established to deal with immigration cases.

Ms Kaur, an Indian national who came on a student visa nine years ago and is under immigration control after overstaying her visa.

A medical note states that she suffers “chronic body pains” including “severe pains in her legs and upper body” and that she has been started on medication and is having further assessment with tests to evaluate her symptoms.

Her husband Jasvir Singh explained this to immigration officers when he attended the appointment without her and showed them a doctor's note. But he was told he must return that day with his wife.

Satnam Lotay, an immigration caseworker who has represented Ms Kaur for a number of years, said the 42-year-old had always complied with reporting requirements and he was “shocked” at the way that she was treated.

“The Home Office were informed that she had been forced to go to A&E on the day before. All she was asking was that her Reporting requirement be relaxed on this occasion due to the horrendous pain she was experiencing,” he said. “The Home Office staff failed to treat her with humanity. They insisted that she had to attend despite the pain she was in. She has talked about the way some staff at the Reporting Centre talk to her as if she was not a human being.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Ed Davey said: “The Home Office’s inflexibility causes untold human misery. Forcing people to report when they’re too ill to stand is senseless and cruel. In this case, it also placed unnecessary extra burdens on the NHS, because it resulted in the individual being taken to hospital by ambulance.

“The Liberal Democrats would take responsibility for immigration cases away from the Home Office and set up a new arm-length, non-political agency that recognises individuals’ needs and circumstances.”

Ms Kaur's treatment came to light just over a fortnight after The Independent revealed people seeking sanctuary in Britain were being forced to undertake five-hour round trips to compulsory Home Office meetings.

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Ministers were accused of showing a “complete lack of compassion” after it emerged that hundreds of people were having to take the trips which cost up to three-quarters of their £37.75 weekly allowance.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Staff will always carefully consider any medical evidence or advice when considering whether an individual should attend an appointment.”

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