By Apsana Begum MP

It attacks the rights of people most at risk of serious harm and persecution across the world. 
 
It attacks the safety and best interests of refugee children and victims of trafficking. 

 
It attacks women fleeing violence and will inflict further degradations upon them.  As such, I have opposed it in every way possible.  

As the Bill returns for it final stages in the Commons, along with supporting a range of attempts to protect people from the array of attacks on basic human dignity, I have proposed amendments to address that it will imprison pregnant women and put their health and the life of their unborn child at risk. 

Migrant women, who should have finally escaped persecution, will be facing pregnancy and birth alone – without adequate medical support and in fear of potential separation from their baby. 

This despite the fact pregnant women in prison are almost twice as likely to give birth prematurely and five times more likely to experience a stillbirth. 

No woman should give birth behind bars, and yet pregnant migrants are to be placed in circumstances even worse. 
 
Such women are not criminals, but the Tories want to treat them even worse than the reprehensible way they treat pregnant women who come into contact with the criminal justice system.  

These women are victims of foreign policy failures and the simple indisputable fact that there were no safe routes for them.  

Women like Najma Ahmadi who fled with her family from the Taliban and made 20 attempts to cross into Greece from Turkey – nearly drowning while pregnant with her baby daughter. She finally arrived in the UK last July on a boat and was granted asylum last December.  

It is common knowledge that healthcare in immigration detentions is often very poor, given that the whole system is plagued by mismanagement, profiteering of private companies and incidents of systemic and direct abuse and neglect.  

No one should be detained in such places – never mind those who are pregnant.  

As such the Illegal Migration Bill attacks our way of life and all our communities across the UK.

Because anti-migrant scaremongering does nothing to address the cost-of-living crisis.  

Traumatising already traumatised people will not fund the NHS or increase wages or solve the housing crisis.

But the cynical and dangerous use of scapegoating to divide people does damage our communities – as we have already seen an alarming rise in violence and intimidation organised by the far right.

Behind the numbers and statistics are real people with lives, hopes and dreams. 

The UK should be offering people in need protection, not pursing political point-scoring regardless of the consequences. 

They should be saving lives not endangering them.

We need an end to pregnant women giving birth behind bars.

We need an approach that prioritises people’s lives and dignity.

We need safe and legal routes to the UK.  
 
Apsana Begum is the Labour Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse.

Image: Apsana Begum MP. Source: https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/4790/Portrait?cropType=ThreeFou. Author: David Woolfall, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.