37% of asylum seekers pregnant

MORE than one-in-three asylum seekers who attended a medical screening service last year was pregnant, figures from the Northern Area Health Board reveal.

The Balsesken clinic in Finglas provides health screening to asylum seekers on arrival before they are allocated accommodation, or if necessary, put in contact with maternity services.

Pregnant women made up 37% of the total attendances of both men and women to the clinic in 2003, figures obtained by the Irish Medical Times show. A spokesperson for the Northern Area Health Board, which covers Dublin city and county north of the River Liffey, stressed that these figures only relate to one medical screening centre.