Campaigners criticise Home Office’s use of child’s medical records to reject family’s asylum request

The Home Office has used a child’s medical notes to reject her family’s asylum request, claiming that the notes showed that the family were not telling the truth about why they had come to the UK.

The family now faces being removed from the UK, after the Home Office argued that a comment made by the daughter to a psychiatric nurse “significantly undermined” the reason for asylum stated on their application.

The move—revealed by the Sunday Times1—has been condemned by human rights organisations, which argue that it “breaches doctor-patient confidentiality” and could prevent vulnerable people from seeking medical help.

The issue arose after the Home Office learnt that the daughter had medical issues, which prompted it to request access to her full medical records …