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As the case of a deported frail and mentally ill woman shows, our stretched asylum system fails the most needy and vulnerable

Late on Thursday evening, Gloria, who has lived in the UK for more than 14 years, was deported. No one has a complete picture of Gloria's life. She was "clearly vulnerable" according to the UK Border Agency official who interviewed her when she applied for asylum, and might have learning difficulties too. She has mental health problems for which she has been receiving treatment.

Those who know Gloria best are the parishioners at the church she attended regularly and the volunteers who staff a drop-in centre for destitute asylum seekers in her city. As far as they know she has had no contact with any family back home. She believes they all died in the trouble that led to her fleeing her village. She is, friends say, easily agitated, very anxious, sometimes confused and frightened and not making much sense. She strives to be happy, has a devout faith and a genuine concern for the welfare of others.

Gloria is one of thousands of asylum seekers who have spent years living on our streets, surviving on hand outs from faith groups. Like many asylum seekers, she has been forced to represent herself before an immigration judge. Gloria could not get a lawyer to act on her behalf. A destitute, mentally ill woman, with very little education, and perhaps learning difficulties, lacking an interpreter, Gloria found herself in court opposite an experienced Home Office presenting officer and before an unsympathetic judge. She lost her case and was refused asylum.

, and he was preparing for four appeals this week. He could take instructions next week, at the earliest. Too late for Gloria â€" her return flight was booked.

Her friends contacted her MP, who agreed to make representations to immigration minister Damian Green. They obtained medical evidence of her extreme vulnerability â€" evidence not previously considered. They obtained letters from her church which confirmed that she was a committed Christian being returned to country known for sectarian violence â€" something else not considered at her previous hearing.

All this evidence was presented to Damian Green. He chose not to exercise his discretion. On Thursday night Gloria was forcibly bundled onto a plane by five officers.

Did Gloria have a cast iron case for asylum? Nobody knows. She had no opportunity to explain, with an interpreter, to a lawyer, what had happened to her. And so our government packed off a destitute woman, being treated for a mental illness, to a land she left as a child and can hardly remember, a land where she no longer has any family connections. In a scalding rebuke of many aspects of UK asylum policy two years ago, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg criticised the lack of legal advice for asylum seekers and called upon the government to adopt "urgent measures … for providing better information and more expert legal advice to these persons". About the Border Agency's obsession with targets, he noted dryly: "Celerity and quality of decision-making in the complex field of refugee law and protection are rarely a matching pair."

Examining Serco's training manual for private contractors' staff he observed: "Human rights … are accorded approximately one and a half hours." He reminded the British government of "the deporting state's duty to monitor returnees' reception and to ensure full protection of their safety and dignity."

The Labour government preferred to take guidance on asylum policy from the Daily Mail, further accelerating the process ("We deport someone every eight minutes", boasted minister Meg Hillier out campaigning in Barking and Dagenham). Labour's "reform" of the legal aid system made competent legal advice even harder to find. As for monitoring returnees' reception and protecting their safety and dignity, you may laugh. Or cry. It isn't happening.

Since becoming immigration minister, Damian Green has made some encouraging noises. Last month he told a meeting of Citizens UKthat he believes many asylum seekers are genuine refugees deserve our help, that this system must be humane and civilized. But he turned his back to Gloria. And no one knows what became of her.

• Gloria is a pseudonym

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