A rape survivor who fled Afghanistan was allegedly blinded in one eye by her husband, following Home Office delays to bring her to safety in the UK.

The woman, an asylum seeker who cannot be named for legal reasons, fled her home country with her three young children after being subjected to a series of rapes, not by her husband.

She feared she could be murdered if family members discovered what had happened to her and was particularly fearful of her husband’s reaction if he found out.

The woman has a sister in the UK who is a British citizen. She and her children managed to reach France and then applied for family reunion in the UK with her sister under regulations known as Dublin III.

The Home Office refused a request from France to take charge of the woman’s asylum claim in April. Following legal proceedings by the woman’s solicitor in July 2019, the Home Office agreed to reconsider the case, only to refuse it again in September.

The woman told her solicitor that her husband followed her to France and she believed her life could be at risk from him.

On 15 October, her solicitor wrote to the Home Office warning against delays to bring the woman and her children to the UK. “It is a potentially extremely serious domestic situation which must be speedily resolved,” the solicitor wrote.

She received no response from the Home Office to her letter, nor to a follow-up email emphasising the danger the woman was in.

On 3 November, the woman says she was violently attacked by her husband. He beat her and stabbed her with a knife through her right eye. She was rushed to Lille Central hospital for treatment for her injuries.

Her solicitor wrote to the Home Office on 6 November informing them of the attack, but still received no response. On 12 November, she issued urgent legal proceedings and obtained an a court order instructing the Home Office to expedite bringing the woman and her children to the UK.

On 28 November, the Home Office agreed to bring the woman and her children to the UK. However, they are still in France.

The French media reported the alleged attack on the woman by her husband and said he had tried to take out her other eye but she managed to push him away. He was arrested and taken into police custody.

The woman’s sister has been going back and forth between the UK and France to look after her.

She told the Guardian: ”My sister is 10 years younger than me. In many ways I feel more like her mother than her sister. I can’t bear the thought of her suffering. Both of us are crying all the time. I’m appealing to the Home Office to bring her to the UK as soon as possible so that I can look after her and the children here.”

In a statement, the woman said of her ordeal: “It is extremely shameful to have had this experience. My sister is my closest friend and the only person I rely on to get through the day. I urgently want to be admitted to the UK so I can feel safe and be supported by my sister to recover from the traumas I have experienced.”

Jane Ryan of Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, who is representing the woman, said: “The Home Office has blood on its hands. [The Home secretary] Priti Patel talks big talk about protecting victims of gender-based violence. But when confronted with my client’s pleas for protection and help she was ignored. Even now the Home Office has not told us what they’re doing to facilitate this family’s admission to the UK. We want them to urgently rectify the gross failures in this case.”

The charity Safe Passage has been providing support to the woman in France. Beth Gardiner-Smith, the chief executive of Safe Passage, said: “The Home Office failed this woman with tragic consequences. Officials systematically fail to comply with legal time limits, leaving individuals in extreme vulnerability.”