campaigns > previous campaigns > women

Campaign for a Women's Charter

Refugee Action is calling for a more gender-sensitive treatment of women asylum seekers.

Women claiming asylum in the UK have often left behind them persecution experience quite different from that of asylum-seeking men. They may have been raped, forced into marriage, experienced domestic violence or ‘honour’ crimes. In the more conservative societies women have no social status or protection and therefore internal flight is not an option. Yet, the UK asylum system treats their cases on a par with those of male asylum-seekers and has no gender-specific provisions, which would apply in asylum determination, securing welfare or accommodation, during detention or in pregnancy.

Read more about the Women's Charter and what we are calling for.

Detention of women and children

Denied protection in the UK, vulnerable women, and often their children too, are still being detained having committed no crime.

We want to ensure that vulnerable women and children aren’t detained in the asylum process.

Refugee Action is supporting the OutCry campaign to end child detention which has been launched by the Children's Society and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID).

Find out what you can do to end child detention

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Motherland

Many of our supporters came to the performances of Motherland at London's Young Vic theatre, organised by Women for Refugee Women and supported by Refugee Action in March 2008.

Following the performance, audience members signed a Mother's Day card to Harriet Harman calling for an end to the detention of women and children. The card was finally presented to her in November 2009, after Women for Refugee Women were granted an audience with her. Good things come to those that wait!

Baroness Helena Kennedy introduced the heartbreaking and heroic journeys of women and children who have sought refuge in the UK, brought to the stage by Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter and other actors. Refugees and asylum seeking women told their own moving stories.

Refugee Action supported this event which was organised by Women for Refugee Women. WRW works with other organisations to raise awareness of the experiences of refugee women. This event was also supported by Asylum Aid, Medical Justice, Bail for Immigration Detainees, Actors for Refugees, Yarl's Wood Befrienders and Migrants Resource Centre.

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Our work with women

Our work with women is informed by the particular problems they face: from gender based persecution in their country of origin, to male biased asylum procedures in the UK, inadequate housing, child care needs and healthcare that is not culturally or gender sensitive.

We assist statutory agencies to develop appropriate services for women, like women-only English language classes or home tuition for women who, for cultural and religious reasons, can’t attend mixed classes, and the choice of a female doctor or interpreter. We also support other advice agencies to give women the choice of a female caseworker and interpreter, women-only drop-in sessions, social events and assist women’s self-help groups.

We work with refugee women to campaign for better conditions and actively support Action for Refugee Women, a national network of refugee women’s organisations and individuals.

Refugee Action's Women's projects

We run various projects which specifically support women refugee and asylum seekers.

Women's Development Project - Leicester and Nottingham
Routes to Learning - Leicester (now ended)

 

Successfully campaigning for women’s safety

In the first ever research report to comprehensively document the lives of refugee women in Britain (Is it Safe Here? Refugee women’s experiences in the UK, 2002), Refugee Action found that 83 per cent of women interviewed feel so unsafe here that they live under self-imposed curfew, locking themselves indoors after 7 o’clock at night. A third have been spat on or shouted at in the street. One in two feel so depressed and anxious they cannot sleep at night.

Supporting women asylum seekers
and refugees is central to Refugee
Action's work

The research found that female asylum seekers were facing a number of problems and concerns under the current NASS (the National Asylum Support Service) system.

On the basis of these findings we launched a campaign to stand up for refugee women’s safety. The campaign aimed to bring about specific policy changes to provide refugee women with a minimum standard of safety.

As a result of our campaign:

• NASS agreed to fund places in women’s refuges for women fleeing domestic violence as common practice
• NASS agreed to offer all women single sex accommodation if preferred
• A working group was set up, led by Refugee Action and consisting of relevant NASS staff and colleagues from the other agencies, to look specifically at the needs of women refugees and asylum seekers. Nothing was in place before to look specifically at the needs of women.

 

Influencing women's policy

In July 2004 the Home Office launched Paying the Price - a Consultation Paper to prompt a public debate on how to deal with the issues raised by prostitution in England and Wales.

Refugee Action's response

 

Action for Refugee Women

Action for Refugee Women (AfRW) is a strategic network of individuals and organisations which are interested in developing policy and services for refugee women in the UK. AfRW was set up in 1997 by a group of women assisted by Refugee Action to ensure refugee women have the opportunities to participate in the process of policy development specific to refugee women in the UK.

Through the years, Refugee Action has provided AfRW with both practical and strategic assistance in the network’s efforts be a voice for refugee women.

AfRW’s objectives include affecting changes that will improve the quality of life of refugee women and creating opportunities to promote and celebrate the positive contribution of refugee women.

Among AfRW’s activities are:

• Organising seminars and conferences
• Campaigning and lobbying
• Celebration of International Women’s Day
• Organising training and information exchange workshops
• Promoting good practice in dealing with refugee women’s issues

Membership is open to individual refugee women, representatives of community group, statutory and voluntary agencies. Whilst largely London based, AfRW welcomes participation from women outside London.

Refugee women’s right to safety

Refugee Action has developed a series of multi-lingual leaflets on UK law and women’s rights aimed at women asylum seekers and refugees. The leaflets contain information on issues such as child protection, UK law on marriage, cohabitation and divorce; protection from racial and sexual harassment and domestic violence. The leaflets are available in: English, French, Farsi, Kurdish, Arabic, Somali, Romanian and Czech. These are available to download.

We have also produced a multi-lingual video providing information on domestic violence, Don’t Suffer in Silence. The languages covered are: English, French, Farsi, Kurdish, Arabic, Somali, Romanian and Czech.

For a copy of the video please contact info@refugee-action.org.uk or 020 7654 7705.

 

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