A South African woman died in London after immigration officers allegedly unlawfully detained her and accused her of faking an illness to avoid deportation. 

The Guardian reported on Thursday, that Nancy Motsamai, 35, collapsed at Heathrow airport on March 7, as she was escorted to a flight back to South Africa. 

An immigration official questioned whether she was really sick and she and her husband were detained overnight. 

Motsamai died on March 12 after developing a blood clot in her leg. 

The Guardian further reported that the couple had lived and worked in the UK legally for more than a decade. 

The woman’s husband, Fusi Motsamai, also 35, told the publication that the Home Office failed to promptly release her passport so that her body could be transported to her home country for burial.

According to Motsamai’s husband, when she tried to explain that she did not feel well, an official told her “he would handcuff her hands and feet and make her walk to the plane like a penguin”, inews.co.uk reported.

The husband received a letter of apology from the Home Office on Wednesday. 

EWN reported on Friday that the family plans to sue UK authorities.

“To them, we were just numbers, part of a statistic that would assist them in cutting migrants entering the country,” he told EWN.