The official report of the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, will censure the UK government for preventing her from inspecting Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.

Manjoo said that the incident was similar to the way Bangladesh blocked her from visiting a notorious refugee camp and India stopped her investigating state-run detention facilities. Manjoo said she hoped that other countries would raise the issue with the UK government of why she was not allowed to enter Britain’s largest immigration centre for women, questioning if there was “something to hide”.

During her two-week tour of Britain in April, organised by senior Home Office officials, Manjoo heard a series of allegations over the plight of female detainees inside Yarl’s Wood, including allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and privacy issues, but was not allowed to inspect the facility at the end of her official visit.

Manjoo said the decision would be raised in the final draft of her report documenting Britain’s approach to violence against womenin the same way she raised concerns following similarly restrictive moves by the Bangladeshi and Indian governments. In May 2013 Manjoo was prevented from entering Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp, which houses members of the Rohingya community in the south-east of the country. Manjoo had received reports of “human rights violations, including violence against women” inside the Bangladeshi camps.

Speaking from Johannesburg, Manjoo said: “If you look at my Bangladeshi report, I was denied entry to a refugee camp and I have made a note in my report, in the same way I will put in the UK report that I was denied entry to Yarl’s Wood.”

Days before arriving in the UK last year, Manjoo published her investigation into India, which states: “The special rapporteur regrets that, despite her specific requests prior to and during the mission, no visits to state-run shelters, prisons or detention centres were programmed.”

She said the failure to allow her to inspect Yarl’s Wood meant the concerns of the detainees had been suppressed. “It’s a missed opportunity, let’s put it that way, to have a dialogue on conditions in such detention centres where there are all sorts of constraints in terms of disclosure, including the possibility of victimisation,” she said. “More importantly for people facing the threat of deportation, it’s in their interests to talk about this.”

Manjoo added: “I can’t speculate on the state’s reasons since I wasn’t giving access to discuss the issue. Whether there is something to hide, whether there’s a denial or whether there’s a lack of accountability I wouldn’t be able to comment, because I didn’t go.”

Her draft report is understood to have been submitted to the UK last month and contains recommendations to help tackle sexism and misogyny. Next month a parliamentary inquiry is expected to publish a critical report on immigration detention, followed by another report questioning the behaviour of some male guards inside Yarl’s Wood.