Concerns have been raised that the Home Office acted illegally when it invited Zimbabwean government officials to interview an asylum seeker at an immigration centre.

The Zimbabwean woman, who has been in the UK for more than 16 years and has an ongoing asylum claim, attended Vulcan House in Sheffield in December to find Zimbabwean officials waiting to speak to her.

She is one of scores of Zimbabweans to have been interviewed by Zimbabwean embassy officials at Home Office centres across the UK over the past few months, in what has been seen as an acceleration of the removals process since the country’s change of government.

The Home Office described the interviews as routine “redocumentation interviews” to establish the identity of a refused asylum seeker so that travel documentation can be issued and they can be removed from the UK.

In a letter to immigration minister Caroline Nokes, Paul Blomfield, the MP for Sheffield Central, said that as her claim to asylum was outstanding, subjecting her to such an interview contravened immigration rules. She had submitted her latest claim on 5 October last year.

Blomfield’s office said they had received legal advice that the Home Office’s actions could have been illegal. Rules state that no action should be taken to remove an individual from the UK until a decision on their asylum claim has been made.

In his letter, the MP said the interview had put his constituent at greater risk of persecution by the Zimbabwean government.

Last month, asylum lawyers and charities alerted the Guardian to the fact that the Home Office was working with Zimbabwe’s new government to push ahead with the deportation of refused asylum seekers despite high-profile human rights abuses in the country.

Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa replaced Robert Mugabe after he was forced from power in November 2017. Despite hopes that his government would bring political reform, the international community has condemned arbitrary arrests, abductions and beatings committed by the country’s police and military.

Blomfield said the interview with Zimbabwean officials was an “extremely intimidating experience” for his constituent, which had been shared by other Zimbabweans in the UK. He said it appeared to be “part of a general policy in relation to Zimbabwean nationals”.

“It also obviously puts her at a greater risk of persecution by the Zimbabwean government,” he said. “The asylum policy instruction also sets out that, whilst information may be disclosed to other government departments or organisations to help them in their functions, nothing will be shared that would put the claimant at risk of persecution until the final decision on the fresh claim has been made; therefore, the presence of the Zimbabwean officials clearly contravenes this guidance.

“I am seriously concerned about the process that has been undertaken, which appears to contravene the overarching policy of fair treatment of asylum seekers and to engage in a policy of intimidation and repatriation of asylum seekers.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Re-documentation interviews with officials from receiving countries are a standard part of the Home Office returns process.

“These interviews are conducted where an asylum claim has failed and it is necessary to establish nationality and identity and to enable a travel document to be produced to facilitate return. They do not have a bearing on an asylum application.”