ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

STEP UP MIGRANT WOMEN (SUMW)

SUMW is a campaign led by migrant and black and minority ethnic (BME) women which aims to secure safe reporting mechanisms for victims of crime with insecure immigration status.

The campaign is run by the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) and is supported by 36 organisations from the women and migrant sectors.

SUMW welcomes this important debate on Ending Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), and urges MPs to attend to give migrant victims a voice and stand up for safe reporting pathways for victims of VAWG.

For further information, contact: Illary Valenzuela Oblitasillary@lawrs.org.uk.

SAFE REPORTING IS A HUMAN RIGHT

Public authorities- including Government, local councils, police and health authorities- have the duty to treat everyone living in the UK equally, protecting their dignity and upholding their human rights. Migrant women who are victims of gender based violence should be able to access safety, care and justice without fear of destitution, detention or deportation. They should be able to report violence to the police safely and in the knowledge that their case will be investigated and they will be protected. But we are highly concerned that the police and other agencies are prioritising immigration enforcement above the protection of victims. This has serious consequences for their safety.the protection of victims. This has serious consequences for their safety.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GOVERNMENT:

• Establish safe reporting mechanisms within the police and other statutory agencies to ensure that victims of VAWG are protected and supported regardless of immigration status.

• Provide clear guidance and training to the police on their duty to prioritise protection of migrant women victims of violence over immigration enforcement.

• Establish a ‘firewall’ to separate vital victim support services from immigration enforcement, in compliance with the Human Rights Act.

• Ensure the Government’s forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill fully complies with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention, including explicit recognition of the gendered nature of domestic abuse and its disproportionate impact on women, and ensuring

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MIGRANT WOMEN AND SAFE REPORTING OF VAWG

AFTER TALKING ABOUT THE ABUSE I WAS EXPERIENCING AND GETTING SUPPORT I FEEL LIKE MYSELF AGAIN. WE NEED SAFE REPORTING MIGRANT SURVIVOR SUPPORTED BY IMECE

the protection of all women without discrimination on any ground including race, religion, nationality, migrant or refugee status.

• Give the new Commissioner established by the Domestic Abuse Bill powers to oversee the response by public authorities to victims facing multiple forms of discrimination -including those with insecure immigration status.

• Deliver a sustainable funding model to support specialist VAWG frontline services and refuges led ‘by and for’ migrant and BME women which provide a critical point of access for BME and migrant women victims of violence and are central to delivering safety and protection, but which have been decimated by funding cuts.

• Extend the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession to all migrant women with ‘no recourse to public funds’ and ensure

• that all migrant women whose immigration status depends on a spouse are able to make an individual application to remain in the UK following the end of an abusive relationship.

• Provide legal aid for victims fleeing domestic abuse who require immigration advice and assistance.

• Reinstate the right of appeal against Home Office immigration refusal decisions.

KCL’S AND LAWRS PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON SAFE REPORTINGThe initial findings of a survey* by King’s College London and LAWRS found that almost two-thirds of migrant women felt they would not be supported by the police due to their immigration status.

Migrant women who experienced negative treatments by the police

45%

36%

27%

32%

Photo © Angeles Rodenas

Being denied/refused support by the police

Not being believed

Interrogated on their immigrant status

Racial discrimination

Source: survey with 50 migrant women with insecure immigration status. Cathy McIlwaine, King’s College London and the Latin American Women’s Right Service (report to be published in 2019).

MIGRANT WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF VAWG• Intersectional inequalities:

migrant women face particular barriers in escaping from perpetrators and accessing support. Their experiences are linked to race, class and immigration status.

• BME and migrant women have specific and complex experiences of violence that must be recognised and addressed: they face violence from multiple perpetrators, including intimate partners, family members, in-laws – or a combination of these; there may be international/cross-border elements to their abuse, such as immigrant spouses being ‘sent back’ to their families overseas or migrant women’s relatives back home being abused or intimidated.1

• As the Home Office recognises, perpetrators routinely use insecure immigration status as a tool of coercive control: as Home Office statutory guidance2 mentions, immigration status is being used as an ‘offender’s tactic’ - however the Department is currently failing to address how immigration policies exacerbate this coercive control and limit

survivors’ access to services. A survey by Imkaan shows that 92%of migrant women (of 183 women) reported threats of deportation from the perpetrator.3

• The ‘vulnerability’ of migrant women to VAWG is worsened by discriminatory responses preventing migrant women accessing support and justice: a study of over 250 survivors by the University of Bristol found that police officers were less likely to arrest, investigate, or bring criminal charges in cases involving migrant women than UK/EU nationals.4 The APPG on Domestic Violence and Abuse has expressed serious concern about “reports of statutory services offering to pay for a woman’s fare back to her home country if she reports domestic abuse, and offering to facilitate mediation with the perpetrator”. Such responses are inappropriate and highly dangerous.5

• Lack of safe reporting in police practice impacts victims safety: migrant women are: being detained or deported by immigration enforcement when reporting abuse6 7 8; being refused

“ MY BOSS KNEW I HAD NO DOCUMENTS. I WAS PREGNANT AND I WAS BEING EXPLOITED MIGRANT SURVIVOR SUPPORTED BY LAWRS

support for ‘not having rights’ in the UK;9 are provided incorrect immigration advice by statutory services;10 have well founded fears that their children will be taken away; and face a lack of information, accessible in different languages, about their rights to access help and support.

1 Bates, L., Gangoli, G., Hester, M. and Justice Project Team (2018) Policy Evidence Summary 1: Migrant Women. University of Bristol 2 Home Office, Statutory guidance framework: controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship, 2015 3 Thiara, R.K. and Roy, S. (2012) Vital Statistics 2 Key Findings Report on Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee women and children facing violence and abuse. London: Imkaan 4 Bates, L., Gangoli, G., Hester, M. and Justice Project Team (2018) Policy Evidence Summary 1: Migrant Women. University of Bristol 5 APPG on Domestic Violence and Abuse, Creating a Truly Transformative Domestic Abuse Bill, September 2018 6 Sara’s case from the BBC (2018) Victims of serious crime face arrest over immigration status. 7 13 cases of migrant women. Report gathering data from 13 organisations from the women’s sector for the GLA’s Victims Commissioner, May 2018 8 Haven’s case of arrest of rape victim, Politics.co (November 2017) 9 Women’s Aid, Nowhere to Turn: Findings from the Second Year of the No Woman Turned Away Project, 2018 10 LAWRS’ Report gathering data from 13 organisations from the women sector for the GLA’s Victim’s Commissioner, May 2018

BARRIERS TO SAFETY AND PROTECTIONThe Istanbul Convention, the landmark international treaty on VAWG which the Government has signed and is committed to ratify, requires that victims are protected regardless of their immigration status.11

The current ‘hostile environment’, and lack of safe-reporting mechanisms for victims of VAWG, are barring women from the safe pathways they need to escape violence. SUMW organisations routinely support migrant women who fear that reporting abuse will lead to immigration enforcement and the evidence below shows that their fears are well founded.

• Hostile immigration policies deter migrant women to access justice. The Immigration Acts (2015; 2016) have increased bulk data-sharing practices between the Home Office and other departments - such as the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education.

• We are highly concerned that statutory agencies (including the police) currently prioritise immigration enforcement

“ WHEN I CALLED THE POLICE,THEY SAID: YOU ARE AN ILLEGAL, WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU MIGRANT SURVIVOR SUPPORTED BY SAFETY4SISTERS

POLICE SHARING VICTIMS’ OF CRIME DATA WITH THE HOME OFFICE

• over the protection of victims. Freedom of Information requests in May 2018 revealed that 27 out of 45 police forces (60%) in England and Wales share victims’ details with the Home Office.12

• Prioritising immigration reporting over the protection of victims at risk of violence is incompatible with human rights: the Human Rights Act requires police and other public authorities to take reasonable steps to protect people they know to be at risk of harm or serious violence and to effectively investigate complaints of violence. The police’s duty is to prevent, detect and punish serious crimes.

• As evidenced in the case of John Worboys (2018) the police has an actionable duty to investigate crimes of serious violence.13 The Supreme Court’s ruling is a vindication of the right to

equal protection of the law for all women. Where the police demonstrate serious failures to meet their duty to investigate in such cases, the court ruling finds that they can be held to account.

• Police guidance. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) policy states that “the fundamental principle must be for the police to first and foremost treat them [victims] as a victim”. The policy14, however, confirms that if it becomes apparent that the victim is also suspected of being an illegal immigrant, it is wholly appropriate that the officer in the case should contact Immigration Enforcement”. The sharing of victims’ data for immigration enforcement purposes undermines trust in the police and statutory services, deters reporting, and increases risk of further abuse.

As the Home Affairs Select Committee recently recognised in their recent report on domestic abuse, it is essential that immigration status does not “bar victims of abuse from protection and access to justice” and the Government must ensure “the police service is compliant with this objective”.15

11 Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: Article 4 of the Convention requires states protect the rights of victims without discrimination on the basis of migrant and refugee status; Article 59 requires states to make sure that victims of violence against women and girls are afforded protection regardless of their immigration status. 12 BBC (May 2018) FOI’s by Natalie Bloomer, Samir Jeraj and Catrin Nye 13 EVAW, NIA Project, Southall Black Sisters and Rape Crisis England and Wales led to the Supreme Court ruling on the John Worboys Case March 2018: Available online.14 Chief Constable’s Council Paper (2018), Information Exchange regarding Victims of Crime with No Leave to Remain. Available online.15 Home Affairs Committee, Domestic Abuse, HC 1015, 22 October 2018

FOI QUESTION TO INDIVIDUAL POLICE FORCES: Please confirm if your police force reports victims and or witnesses of crime to the Home Office for immigration enforcement. “I can confirm that Northamptonshire Police has done so in the past [...] The policy is to refer them to the UK Border Agency” Northamptonshire Police (March 2018)

“There is no policy in place that requires that victims and witnesses of crime should be referred to Immigration” Greater Manchester Police (March 2018)

THESE [WOMEN WITH INSECURE IMMIGRATION STATUS] ARE ‘LOW HANGING FRUIT’; THEY ARE VULNERABLE PEOPLE, A LOT EASIER TO TICK OFF YOUR LIST IF [THE POLICE] HAVE A TARGET TO MEET. IT IS EASIER WHEN A WOMAN COMES FORWARD AND SAYS SHE HAS BEEN RAPED, TO THEN SAY WE ARE INVESTIGATING THIS, WE WILL ARREST YOU AND YOU WILL BE SENT TO A DETENTION CENTRE DAL BABU, FORMER POLICE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT (BBC 2018)

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ACCESS TO SPECIALIST SERVICESDedicated ‘by and for’ specialist BME women’s services are vital for meeting migrant women’s specific needs, from language specialisms to their expertise on immigration and discrimination. Although the Home Office makes clear local areas should fund these services15, in 2017 there were just 28 refuge services run ‘by and for’ BME women.16

The proposed new Domestic Abuse Bill must be delivered alongside a sustainable funding solution for specialist ‘by and for’ BME and migrant women’s services, and ensure they are resourced to meet migrant women’s needs. In addition, action is needed to tackle the insurmountable barriers that migrant women face in accessing support services, including refuges:

• Survivors with ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) - which encompasses those with insecure status, undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and European Economic Area (EEA) nationals - are unable to access welfare benefits. This means that few refuge services, who face severe constraints to their funding, are able to pay for their stay.

• Over a quarter (27%, 110 women) of those refused access to a refuge space supported by Women’s Aid’s No Woman Turned Away (NWTA) project in 2016 had NRPF.17

• Barriers to accessing services can have severe consequences for victims: research by the University

of Bristol of 250 survivors found that migrant women were more likely to become destitute after fleeing violence as a result of their insecure immigration status.18

• The Destitution Domestic Violence Concession (DDVC) - secured through advocacy from the ‘by and for’ BME women’s sector - is a life-line to support, providing victims with welfare benefits so they can access a refuge space while applying for indefinite leave to remain.

• However, eligibility for the DDVC is currently narrowly confined to those migrants who are in the UK on spousal visas and only provides a three-month window for victims of domestic abuse

to submit complex applications for indefinite leave to remain. It is essential that the criteria and timeframe for the DDVC is expanded to ensure it delivers access to refuge and welfare benefits for all victims with insecure immigration status.19

15 Home Office, National Statement of Expectations: Violence Against Women and Girls, 2016 16 Women’s Aid, Survival and Beyond: The Domestic Abuse Report 2017. Accessible Online. 17 Women’s Aid, Nowhere to Turn: Findings from the First Year of the No Woman Turned Away Project, 2017. Accessible online. 18 Bates, L., Gangoli, G., Hester, M. and Justice Project Team (2018) Policy Evidence Summary 1: Migrant Women. University of Bristol19 Extension of the DDVC and Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds to protect migrant women Southall Black Sisters (2018)

Photo © Angeles Rodenas

Cuts in legal aid services have undermined survivors’ access to welfare benefits, which can mean they are unable to access refuge. Without legal representation, they can be forced to represent themselves in court.

As Ministry of Justice research reports, between January to September 2017, 3,234 victims of domestic abuse had no legal representation in at least one hearing, 147% more than for the same period in 2012.20 According to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by the UK in 1986, States must:

ENSURE THAT WOMEN HAVE RECOURSE TO AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND TIMELY REMEDIES, WITH LEGAL AID AND ASSISTANCE AS NECESSARY, TO BE SETTLED IN A FAIR HEARING BY A COMPETENT AND INDEPENDENT COURT OR TRIBUNAL, WHERE APPROPRIATE.21

Therefore, provision of legal aid to women at risk, regardless of immigration status, is a legal obligation. In order to comply with this obligation we recommend that the Government:

• Review existing immigration law and policy to establish impact on victims of VAWG and to make recommendations for reform;

• Review access to safe accommodation and financial support for those fleeing abuse;

• Allow migrant women applying to settle under the DV rule to include all basis to remain in the UK in one immigration application, including human rights grounds;

• Bring back legal aid for welfare benefits advice and First Tier Tribunal representation to support the most vulnerable groups including women experiencing DV.

20 Rights of Women submission to Home Affairs Selected Committee. Available online 21 Signed by the UK in 1995, requires states to provide ‘free or low cost legal aid’ to women who have experienced violence under Strategic Objective D.1, Para 125 (a). General Recommendation No. 28 on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Available online

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ACCESS TO LEGAL AID

Photo © Angeles Rodenas

SURVIVORS’ EXPERIENCES* ABUSED by my husband, he took my dignity, tried to kill me and abused my culture…but the police and social workers abused me as well. No one believed me until I came here (the black led women’s centre). They all wanted to take my children and why? Because I was abused by him they took his side…Because I am not from here…because I am from a different culture and place…because they said I had no rights. I know what my rights are now and know this can never be done to me again.”

Gloria is a trafficked survivor which experienced domestic servitude and sexual abuse. Gloria called the police 3 times whilst living in an area of South West England, every time they arrived they checked her immigration status and no further action was taken. Gloria says she was never referred to a domestic abuse agency or children’s social care.

WE’VE BEEN LEFT VULNERABLE He called the Home Office to say we were no longer together. The Home Office sent me a letter and said I was going to be deported. We feel unsafe with my daughter, the social worker told me I had no rights because I’m not European and could not access public funds. He has all the power”.

Andrea holds an EEA family member visa and has no recourse to public funds. She was interviewed by the Independent newspaper in August 2018.

MIGRANT WOMEN like me need to be believed by the police where my rights as a survivor are put above the passport I hold”.

G was on a tourist visa and told by the police “she should sort her immigration status in the country first”. She read her testimony in Parliament in International Women’s Day 2018.

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*Names have been changed to protect survivors’ identities

WE ACKNOWLEDGE ALL THE MIGRANT WOMEN SURVIVORS WHO HAVE RAISED THEIR VOICES AND CAMPAIGNED AGAINST THE IMPACT OF THE ‘HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT’ AND THOSE WHO ARE STILL TOO AFRAID TO REPORT. WE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THE VITAL CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN’S AID, SISTERS FOR CHANGE, AMNESTY UK, END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN COALITION, RIGHTS OF WOMEN, IMKAAN AND THE RECOMMENDATIONS, CASES AND VOICES OF BME SPECIALIST SERVICES LEADING THE CAMPAIGN WITH LAWRS SUCH AS IMECE WOMEN’S CENTRE, KIRAN SUPPORT SERVICES, ANGELOU CENTRE, SAFETY 4 SISTERS, SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS, KURDISH MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN’S ORGANISATION, LONDON BLACK WOMEN’S PROJECT, IRANIAN AND KURDISH WOMEN’S RIGHTS ORGANISATION, WOMEN FOR REFUGEE WOMEN, MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN & SOCIETY ORGANISATION AS WELL AS PROJECT 17, LIBERTY AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS NETWORK

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Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)Tindlemanor, 52-54 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RTwww.lawrs.org.uk